Going Beyond Defense: Defense-Led Capability Accumulation and Civilian Spillovers

Tuesday, 16 June 2026, 4pm to 5.30pm

In this seminar, Dr. Ates will examine how defence industries can generate economic value beyond their immediate military functions. The seminar will focus on defence-led capability accumulation, highlighting how defence industrialisation creates technological, organisational, and human capabilities that may spill over into civilian sectors and contribute to the wider economy.

In the case of Turkiye, the talk will investigate spillovers across six levels: firm-level diversification into civilian technologies, supplier upgrading through defence supply chains, skilled labour formation, regional industrial transformation, national strategic leverage, and the growth of technology, R&D, and entrepreneurship ecosystems. The objective of the seminar is to explore how defence industries, when effectively connected to civilian sectors, can become engines of broader economic development and technological learning.

Dr Seyithan Ahmet Ates is a professor at Ankara University of Social Sciences and as the head of the Department of Economics. He has been actively involved in projects with leading international organizations, including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the European Union (EU), where he has contributed as a consultant or country specialist. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Vienna University of Economics and completed his doctoral studies in Social and Economic Sciences at the Vienna University of Technology.

Speaker(s): Professor Seyithan Ahmet Ates (SST:CCW)

Series: SST:CCW Seminar Series (Strategy, Statecraft, and Technology, Changing Character of War Centre)

Venue: Manor Road Building - Seminar Room A - Seminar Room A Manor Road Building Manor Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3UQ United Kingdom

Department: Politics & Int Relations (Department)