Ihsan Yilmaz is the Founding President of the Istanbul Institute, a think tank based in Turkey. He is also a professor of political science and Head of the PhD Programme for Political Science and International Relations at Fatih University, Istanbul. Ihsan Yilmaz also works as a columnist for Today’s Zaman, an English language daily published in Turkey and Meydan, a popular daily published in Turkish.

He had served as the editor of Turkish Journal of Politics (TJP) between 2010-2015 and editor in chief of the European Journal of Economic and Political Studies (EJEPS) between 2009-2013.

He received his BA in Political Science and International Relations from the Bosphorus University in 1994 and completed his PhD at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 1999. Subsequently, he worked at the University of Oxford as a Fellow between 1999 and 2001 and until his move to the Fatih University in 2008, he taught Turkish government and politics, legal sociology, comparative law and Islamic law at SOAS, University of London between 2001 and 2008. He was the Deputy Chair of the Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies at SOAS (2003-2008) and the Founding Director of the London Centre for Social Studies (2003-2008).

He is the author of (2005) Muslim Laws, Politics and Society in Modern Nation States: Dynamic Legal Pluralisms in England, Turkey and Pakistan, Aldershot, Ashgate and (2015) From Kemalism to Erdoganism: Religion, State and Good Citizen in Turkey (in Turkish), Istanbul, Ufuk. He is also co-editor with John L. Esposito (2010) Islam and Peacebuilding: Gülen Movement Initiatives, New York, Blue Dome; with Paul Weller, (2012) European Muslims, Civility and Public Life: Perspectives on and From the Gülen Movement, London, Continuum and with Greg J. Barton and Paul Weller (2013) Muslim World and Politics: Creative Contributions of the Gülen Movement, London & New York, Bloomsbury.