Role: Assistant Professor, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey
Istanbul, Turkey

  Contact: stephen.goodwin@gmail.com

 Scholarship:
Humanitarian Intervention in Conflict Zones | Christian-Muslim Relations/Interreligious Dialogue | Peacebuilding

Stephen R. Goodwin has been an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey since 2006. He is a specialist in Balkan societal reconstruction, serving as a part-time consultant in this area. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 2005 where he wrote his dissertation on nation building and peace building in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dr. Goodwin completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at Marmara University in Istanbul.

Prior to his post-graduate study in the United Kingdom, he spent more than a decade in the NGO sector as an active participant in post-communist social reconstruction in Poland and Germany. Soon after the signing of the Dayton Accord (1995) brought a measure of stability to the Balkans he shifted his focus to peace-building, reconstruction and humanitarian aid in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Kosova. His published works cover issues ranging from civil restoration, religious cohesion in times of conflict, perspectives of nationalism, peace building and inter-religious dialogue between Muslims and Christians.

Dr. Goodwin’s current research seeks to examine the dynamics of conflict zones vis-à-vis the limitations of the 2005 UN norm of a sovereign state’s Responsibility to Protect its own citizens. To this end vulnerability theory is a fitting framework and metric for analysis towards conflict prevention in escalating situations, and its emphasis on resilience is consistent with current UN capacity building initiatives. Seen through a vulnerability framework resilience can also make contributions to post-

conflict situations and transitioning societies in which institution building is paramount to recovery and stability, especially when state mechanisms are weak, discriminatory, or non-existent.

Dr. Goodwin is married to Melinda, and has two grown daughters living in Atlanta.