Soli Özel is a professor of International Relations and Political Science at Istanbul Bilgi University. He is also a columnist at Haberturk newspaper

In addition, he is the editor of Private View, the journal of Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) and the editor of the Turkish edition of Foreign Policy, published in the United States by the Carnegie Endowment. He is an advisor to the chairman of TUSIAD on foreign policy issues. He is also a partner in Tribeca, a Public Relations firm.

In 2002, Mr. Özel spent four months at St. Antony's College, Oxford, as a fellow. Later that year, he was a visiting senior scholar at the EU Institute for Security Studies in Paris.

He is also the co-author of "Rebuilding a partnership: Turkish-American relations in a new era".

Mr. Özel received his bachelor's at Bennington College and his master's from John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He then went on to the University of California at Berkeley for doctoral studies in political science.