Özel holds a BA in Economics from Benningon College and an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Currently he is Professor at Kadir Has University, a columnist at Habertürk Daily and advisor to TÜS‹AD. He was a guest lecturer and teacher at different US universities, held fellowships at Oxford and the EU Institute of Strategic Studies. Özel contributes to the German Marshall Fund’s web site’s “ON Turkey” series. His work has been published in Internationale Politik, Journal of Democracy, Foreign Policy, International Security, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, The Guardian, Bitterlemons-International.