Domestic and Regional Uncertainties in the New Turkey


Book Description

Turkey has faced, in the last two decades, a number of critical events, like wars, conflicts and frictions in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Middle East, that have represented a huge challenge for its foreign policy and civil and economic interventions. Turkish multi-directionality and multidimensionality have been tested by these occurrences, demonstrating that what some scholars and experts had defined as a “model” contained failures as well as success. This book examines these dynamics through case studies of the humanitarian, cultural, economic and political dimensions of Turkey’s role in a diffuse neighbourhood, in which the country has tried to exert its power in recent decades. Starting from the questions that the Cold War and the arrival of the AKP in government have opened for Ankara, the volume illustrates two of the most important sides of the Turkish strategic repositioning in the international system. The first part is focused on the main humanitarian and political struggles in contemporary Turkish society, while the second explores the main fault-lines in Turkey’s regional policy and the development of the country’s foreign policy. As such, the book represents a valuable resource for both graduate and undergraduate students, academics and researchers in the areas of Turkish studies, foreign policy, regional politics, Middle Eastern studies, security, political economy and European studies as well as for the general public.




Religion, Identity and Power


Book Description

This book examines Turkey’s ethno-religious activism and power-related political strategies in the Balkans between 2002 and 2020, the period under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), to determine the scopes of its activities in the region.
Ahmet Erdi Öztürk illuminates an often-neglected aspect of Turkey’s relations with its Balkan neighbours that emerged as a result of the much discussed ‘authoritarian turn’ – a broader shift in Turkish domestic and foreign policy from a realist-secular to a Sunni Islamic orientation with ethno-nationalist policies.
Öztürk draws on personal testimonies given by both Turkish and non-Turkish, Muslim and non-Muslim interviewees in three country cases: Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Albania. The findings shed light on contemporary issues surrounding the continuous redefinition of Turkish secularism under the AKP rule and the emergence of a new Muslim elite in Turkey.




Turkey


Book Description




Global Trends 2040


Book Description

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.




Turkey’s Return to the Western Balkans


Book Description

This volume sheds new light on the interaction between Turkey and the Western Balkans. Written from a multidisciplinary perspective, the contributions decode the essence of bilateral relations by analyzing various aspects of regional diplomacy, including official initiatives for cooperation and the impact of different interstate exchanges. In addition to the political aspect, the book highlights the economic dimensions of Turkey’s involvement in the Western Balkans, by exploring trade linkages and prospects for future partnership arrangements. Finally, socio-cultural components of bilateral relations are examined, with some contributors focusing on the role of art, religion, and cultural heritage in Turkish foreign policy toward the Western Balkans. While providing detailed analysis and reflections on Turkey’s direction and policy preferences, this unique collection appeals to scholars of international relations, Balkan and Turkish studies, and other neighboring disciplines, as well as to policymakers and general readership interested in the region and international collaboration.




Turkey, Russia and Iran in the Middle East


Book Description

This book explores the complexity of the Syrian question and its effects on the foreign policies of Russia, Iran, and Turkey. The Syrian crisis has had a major effect on the regional order in the Middle East. Syria has become a territory where the rivalry between Russia and Western powers is being played out, and with the West’s gradual withdrawal, the conflict will without a doubt have lasting effects locally and on the international order. This collection focuses on the effects of the Syrian crisis on the new governance of the Middle East region by three political regimes: Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Many articles and a number of books have been written on this conflict, which has lasted over ten years, but no publication has examined simultaneously and comparatively how these three states are participating in the shared management of the Syrian conflict.




Turkey and Transatlantic Relations


Book Description

Turkey’s position in transatlantic alliances goes back in the 1950s. Turkish Foreign Policy “Fresh Look” was launched just prior to the failed coup d’etat last July, and was intended to mend ties with its neighbors with whom Turkey has strained relationships. Turkey’s new pragmatic reconciliation policy strives to build bridges without damaging existing transatlantic alliance. The goal of developing good relations with its neighbors that surround the Mediterranean and the Black sea, presents Turkey with a number of challenges. Turkey is seen as a bridge between West and East due to its geographic location. This volume intends to shed more light into past, present and future Turkey-Transatlantic relations, focusing on a history of Turkey-Transatlantic relations, the impact of current developments in Turkey and its neighbors, and Turkish domestic and foreign policies in Transatlantic relations. Authors include: Hülya Kevser Akdemir, Serdar Altay, Altay Atlı, Enes bayraklı, Münevver Cebeci, Filiz Cicioğlu, Şükrü Cicioğlu, İsmail Çağlar, Beril Dedeoğlu, Mehmet Uğur Ekinci, Emre Erşen, Tea Ivanovic, Donald N. Jensen, Edward P. Joseph, Kılıç Buğra Kanat, Erdal Tanas Karagöl, Christina Lin, Jennifer Miel, Nona Mikhelidze, Çiğdem Nas, Aslı Şirin Öner, Yonca Özer, Nicolò Sartori, Merve Seren, Eduard Soler i Lecha, Melike Janine Sökmen, Sasha Toperich, Aylin Ünver Noi, Alida Vračić, and Murat Yerlitaş




Turkish Foreign Policy in an Age of Uncertainty


Book Description

The authors describe the challenges and opportunities facing Turkey in the international environment during a time of extraordinary flux. Special emphasis is given to the strategic and security issues facing Turkey, including a number of new issues posed by the terrorist attacks of September 2001 and the subsequent international response. They conclude by offering some prognostications regarding the country's future and their implications on Turkey's western partners.




Debating Security in Turkey


Book Description

Debating Security in Turkey: Challenges and Changes in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Ebru Canan-Sokullu, gives a detailed account of the strategic security agenda facing Turkey in an era of uncertainty and swift transformation in global politics, and regional and local dynamics. The contributors to this volume describe the challenges and changes that Turkey encounters in the international, regional, and national environment at a time of extraordinary flux. This study provides a framework for Turkish security agenda locating it in theoretical discussions, and developing a conceptual framework of security challenges to Turkey, and to a broader region where the country and its interests are located. The book positions Turkey in the new global security order addressing a multidimensional political agenda, and points to the need not only to elaborate on the overall evaluation of Turkey's political affairs--domestic and foreign-- but also to trace a critical conjuncture of transatlantic relations, its recent role in the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia, and bid for full membership in the EU within the security context. Finally, the contributors reflect upon where Turkey's security challenges and prospects stand from internal and external perspectives with an interactive foreign policy assessment. Debating Security in Turkey is an essential contribution to the literature of Turkish national security, and the effects of that security in the region.




The Europeanization of Turkey


Book Description

Given the recent inertia in EU-Turkey relations in the midst of regional economic and political upheavals, Europeanization of Turkey takes a step back from the latest headlines to provide a comprehensive stocktaking of EU-inspired reform efforts in Turkey with an eye to understanding how effective or ineffective EU conditionality has been in making Turkey's key political institutions, actors and culture more compatible with European norms. In addition to contributing to the theoretical literature on the differential effects of Europeanization on the domestic realm, this volume also expands the existing scope of research to include questions of how socialization through the accession process operates under high levels of uncertainty about the attainability of European Union membership. Applying a uniform analytical framework and the methodology of process tracing, the authors in this volume assess the nature and degree of change that has occurred in various dimensions of Turkish domestic polity and politics in the context of Turkey's post-1999 EU accession. Engaging with important practical issues such as whether potential membership in the EU has brought about positive change, in which areas this change is manifest, and how significant this change has been, this book is an essential resource for students, scholars and researchers seeking to understand contemporary relations between the EU and Turkey.