ecently publishing two books is just another accomplishment in what is an already substantial career for Elizabethtown College’s Dr. Oya Dursun-Ozkanca, associate professor of political science.
Dursun-Ozkanca’s first book was published in July 2013 through Routledge. This book is an edited volume, which was co-edited with Dr. Stefan Wolff of the University of Birmingham, UK. The title of the book is “External Interventions in Civil Wars: Assessing the Role and Impact of Regional and International Organisations.”
It brings together expert case studies on a range of third-party interventions in civil wars. The chapters consider the role of a variety of organizations, including the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the African Union and the Organization of American States in intervening in civil wars.
Her second work is a volume for which she was the sole editor. It was published by Routledge in September 2013. Its title is “The European Union as an Actor in Security Sector Reform: Current Practices and Challenges of Implementation.” This book critically analyzes the European Union’s role in Security Sector Reform (SSR), a topical issue with regards to European security.
While the literature on SSR has increased significantly in the past decade, there are too few comparative analyses of SSR case studies that are geared toward theory development. Dursun-Ozkanca’s collection strives to direct SSR literature to further examine the theory. It focuses on how the EU reacts to the SSR.
Another question the book addresses is why and how the EU activities regarding SSR in conflict management, peace building and state building have produced a wide variety of outcomes ranging from the failure to reform any or all of the sub-set of security sectors (police, justice, military, etc.) to complete and integrated reform.
The volume encompasses all relevant cases of SSR in terms of the financial, human and political resources involved at the EU level. Cases are drawn from the Balkans (Kosovo; Bosnia-Herzegovina), Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo), the Middle East (Palestinian Territories), Post-Soviet regions (Georgia) and Asia (Aceh, Indonesia). The end product is a contribution to preexisting literature on the subject, providing both an empirically and theoretically sound approach to the study of SSR.
Dursun-Ozkanca is a native of Turkey and received her Ph.D. in government from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in international relations, comparative politics (European politics) and American politics.
