Dr Dimitar Bechev

Dr. Dimitar Bechev is the Director of the Dahrendorf Programme at the European Studies Centre which explores Europe’s role in a changing world and, in particular, relations with global players such as China, India, Turkey, Russia and the United States.  Dr Bechev is also  a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, where he focuses on EU enlargement, the Black Sea and Russia. He teaches at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA), University of Oxford. 

Bechev is the author of Turkey under Erdogan (Yale University Press, 2022, translated into German, Portuguese, Greek and Polish), Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia (Rowman, 2019), and Rival Power: Russia in Southeast Europe (Yale UP, 2017) as well as co-editor of Russia Rising: Putin’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East and North Africa (Bloomsbury, 2021). He has also published numerous academic articles and policy reports.  Dr Bechev’s current project, The Scramble for Europe, explores the challenge to regional order posed by Russia, China and Turkey. 

Dr Bechev’s past positions include lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and senior policy fellow, head of the Sofia office at the European Council on Foreign Relations. 

Dr Bechev has held fellowships at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna; Harvard’s Center for European Studies; and the European Institute, London School of Economics. He contributes frequently to the FT, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, Politico Europe, and RFE/RL and his quotes have appeared in  the Economist, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, FT and other major news outlets.