Arda
Akinci

Arda Akinci is an USAL4Excellence Postdoctoral Researcher at the Arabic & Islamic Studies. He received his Ph.D. from the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) with a doctoral dissertation on Intelligence Activities across the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Abdulhamid II (1876-1909). His dissertation revolves around the formation and transformation of the intelligence activities during the Hamidian Era, in relation to the "Eastern Question", the threats perceived and received by the Ottoman imperial administration, and the technological advances. His thesis deals with state espionage at both the imperial center and the borderlands of the Ottoman Empire. He is currently working on the nationalist and religious movements, secret organisations, perceptions of threat and the use of intelligence activities in the Ottoman North Africa & the Middle East, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on the eve of the WWI. His research interests include State-Building, Borderland, Security, and Intelligence studies, as well as, the late Ottoman History, History of Irregular Warfare and Transnational History.