Murad Ismayilov holds MA in International Relations from the Baku State University (2004) and has recently completed an MSt Program in International Relations at the University of Cambridge (2009). In 2005, he completed a four-month NATO Senior Executive Program at the NATO Studies Center in Bucharest (Romania). He is currently involved with the Diplomatic Academy of Azerbaijan (ADA), where he co-edits ADA’s biweekly online publication Azerbaijan in the World. His research interests include international relations theory (especially constructivist and post-structuralist approaches), political theory, energy security, issues related to national identity and civil society of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan’s national security, Euro-Atlantic security, and sociology and security of the Middle East.
Authors articles:
Baku and the Azerbaijani Diaspora: How Much Interaction and Influence?
The Azerbaijani government is becoming ever more involved with Azerbaijanis living abroad, hoping to use them to influence other states. Baku’s efforts in this direction are making the various members of this community more self-conscious of their identity if not yet a single united group. And this new self-consciousness among Azerbaijanis abroad appears likely over time to have an influence on Azerbaijan itself, regardless of how much influence they may have on the countries in which they live...
Azerbaijani National Identity and Baku's Foreign Policy
Ever since Azerbaijan regained its independence in 1991, there has been an intense debate among scholars, officials and ordinary Azerbaijanis over how the country should define itself. And while such discussions are taking place in other former Soviet republics, those in Azerbaijan have been particularly intense, especially because there is a widespread consensus in Baku that how Azerbaijan defines itself will determine what kind of a foreign policy it pursues. Consequently, a brief review of the current state of this debate is important both intellectually and politically...
