Nury Turkel

Nury Turkel is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute.

He specializes in US-China relations, foreign policy, global trade, emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, export controls, economic sanctions, and anti-corruption. His expertise also encompasses national security, digital authoritarianism, forced labor, and supply chain risk, as well as business and human rights due diligence. Additionally, Mr. Turkel focuses on global justice enforcement and the prevention of atrocities, including genocide and crimes against humanity.

As an attorney, Mr. Turkel has extensive experience in international trade compliance, export controls, and economic sanctions enforcement. He specializes in Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) regulations, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, and Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) regulations. His legal practice includes global corporate compliance, internal investigations, and US government enforcement related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), and other anti-corruption and human rights standards. He also focuses on customs and import trade compliance, economic sanctions, trade regulatory investigations, and supply chain due diligence, ensuring multinational corporations and government agencies align with US and international trade laws.

Mr. Turkel has led complex internal investigations into International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and OFAC compliance violations, overseeing voluntary self-disclosures, regulatory engagements, and enforcement actions. He has advised multinational corporations, government agencies, and industry stakeholders on trade compliance best practices, risk mitigation, and global policy development. Additionally, he has engaged with US and foreign government officials to influence trade policies, ensure compliance with evolving regulatory frameworks, and safeguard corporate interests in global trade.

He has testified before Congress as a subject matter expert, most recently before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the House Select Committee on Competition between the US and the Chinese Communist Party, and the House Ways and Means Committee, advocating strong policies to protect American national and economic interests. His recommendations have been incorporated into laws relating to China, including the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act of 2021. In addition to his human rights–centric foreign policy advocacy in the United States, Mr. Turkel has traveled globally for governmental and public engagements, testifying in parliaments in Italy, the Czech Republic, Canada, and Taiwan and advising European and Asian governments on human rights and trade enforcement.

As a leading expert on US-China relations, international trade law, and human rights enforcement, Mr. Turkel is a senior advisor at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy and a senior legal fellow at Notre Dame Law School. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and previously served as chair and a Congressionally appointed commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) from 2020–24.

His policy-oriented commentary has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, TIME, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, USA Today, The Independent, The Hill, and The Diplomat. He has spoken at numerous policy forums, academic institutes, and human rights conferences on US- China relations, the rise of digital authoritarianism, forced labor in global supply chains, and the ongoing Uyghur genocide. Mr. Turkel has appeared on CNN, BBC, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Australian ABC, Sky News, and France 24.

Mr. Turkel was included in TIME’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2020. In 2021, Fortune Magazine included him in its list of the “50 Greatest Leaders.” He received the inaugural Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty in June 2021 and was awarded the Global Soul Award by Jewish World Watch in September 2022.

Mr. Turkel holds an MA in international relations and a JD from American University. His memoir, No Escape: The True Story of China’s Genocide of the Uyghurs, won the 2023 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing.