Soft Power and Turkey's Foreign Policy Toward the Middle Eastern Countries, (2002 - 2011)


Book Description

This study examines the soft power of Turkey's foreign policy towards Middle Eastern countries under the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) or the Justice and Developed party between 2002-2011. Turkey's foreign policy used hard power means to deal with security issues with these countries during the Cold War era. When AKP is in power, however, Turkey adopts and implements soft power in its foreign policy to enhance its relations with the Middle Eastern countries. The objectives of this study are to firstly to determine the main elements of Turkey's soft power, secondly to illustrate the successes of Turkish policy of soft power in the Middle East. The third objective is to evaluate the challenges faced by the Turkish soft power policy towards the Middle Eastern countries. In order to accomplish the research objectives, the study relies on conceptual framework of soft power introduced by Joseph Nye, Jr. for analysis. The method of the study is based on an analytical approach. The findings of the research are summarized as follows: Turkey's democratic model, its public diplomacy, its cultural and economic relations towards the Middle Eastern countries reveal that they have been highly successful in improving Turkey's relations with old rivals such as Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Despite some challenges that face Turkey's soft power such as the limitation of its public diplomacy, principles of democracy, and liberty with the advent of the Arab uprisings and Kurdish issue, Turkey still has the asset, legitimacy, and credibility to use soft power in its foreign policy towards the Middle Eastern countries.




Turkey’s Relations with the Middle East


Book Description

This volume examines contemporary political relations between Turkey and the Middle East. In the light of the Arab Uprisings of 2011, the Syria Crisis, the escalation of regional terrorism and the military coup attempt in Turkey, it illustrates the dramatic fluctuations in Turkish foreign policy towards key Middle Eastern countries, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. The contributors analyze Turkey’s deepening involvement in Middle Eastern regional affairs, also addressing issues such as terrorism, social and political movements and minority rights struggles. While these problems have traditionally been regarded as domestic matters, this book highlights their increasingly regional dimension and the implications for the foreign affairs of Turkey and countries in the Middle East.




Turkey’s Power Capacity in the Middle East: Limits of the Possible


Book Description

International Strategic Research Center (ISRO – USAK) proudly announces the release of the report named “Turkey’s Power Capacity in the Middle East: Limits of the Possible” which is prepared by Osman Bahadir Dincer, USAK expert on Middle Eastern affairs, and Mustafa Kutlay, USAK expert on political economy; with the contribution of top-notch academics and USAK researchers from various fields of study. The previous version of the report in Turkish was published in May and introduced to a wide range of audience, from media organs to diplomats, through a conference held in USAK seminar hall. This latter version in English aims to open a new window towards the issues at glance for international researchers as well, by enabling the reader to bypass popular qualitative speculations and have a more clear vision of the quantitative aspect of Turkey’s power projection capabilities in the Middle Eastern theatre through a tri-color prism of diplomacy, economics and soft power. The arguments about whether Turkey is a role model in the Middle East or has attained the level of an “order establishing actor” are frequently voiced in print and visual media, but no systematic empirical analysis of these claims seems to have been carried out. This study sets out to fill this gap. Turkey’s capacity as a regional power is examined empirically, with special emphasis placed on the structural components of Turkey’s growing regional influence, and on the basis of data regarding its diplomatic, economic, and soft power components. This study concludes that Turkey is a country suffering from an “expectations-capabilities gap” in the Middle East, and that until the deficiencies identified in the study are remedied, Turkey will be unable to become a regional leader.




Turkey's Foreign Policy Towards the Middle East


Book Description

This book investigates the effects of the Arab Spring on Turkish foreign policy using a multidimensional approach that draws on a wide range of disciplines from international relations to sociology and economics. The demands for democracy that began in Tunisia, when Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in 2010, rapidly spread across the Arab Middle East and Northern Africa. In countries dominated by authoritarian regimes, a freedom and sovereignty movement led by middle-class urbanites changed the quality of politics in the region. The focus and dynamics of the Arab Spring varied across countries where large-scale demonstrations were held, such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Jordan and Bahrain. While protests in Jordan and Bahrain had few consequences, they brought about changes in governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. After the regime in Syria exerted all its strength to stay in power, the issue gained a regional, then international, dimension. The most bloody and complicated struggle caused by the wave of changes continues in Syria, with undoubtedly serious implications for Turkish foreign policy. As a counter-stance against the status quo in the Middle East, the Arab Spring has stimulated many discussions and this has led to the emergence of new regional actors.




Turkish Relations with the Middle East


Book Description

Although it seems entirely appropriate for Turkey to want to broaden and deepen its relations with its neighbors and other countries in the Middle East, the shift in policy has been so dramatic that it led both Western and some Turkish observers to question whether Turkey was shifting away from its traditional Western foreign policy posture. The fact that the ruling party’s lineage can be traced back to the founding of Turkey’s Islamist movement in the late 1960s under the leadership of Necmettin Erbakan only accentuated concerns about Ankara’s efforts to forge a new path in the Middle East. After all, Turkey had long been a tepid and cautious observer of Middle Eastern politics, devoting most of its diplomatic energy on the institutionalization of relations with Europe and the United States. This Western orientation, especially Ankara’s NATO membership, was prior to the rise of the AKP a source of mistrust with which the Arab world tended to view Turkey. More profoundly, the combination of the Ottoman colonial legacy in the Middle East and Kemalism’s official policy of laiklik (secularism), which seemed to many in the Middle East as irreligious, sowed an unarticulated but unmistakable divide between Turkey and the Arab world. Turkey’s new-found role in the Middle East will neither be as triumphant as some in Ankara suggest nor as malevolent as AKP’s Western opponents imply. There should be no doubt that Turkey is in the Middle East to stay. Still, Ankara’s hoped for role as a regional power broker may be in jeopardy as a result of the Arab Spring. This is not the consequence of early missteps on Libya and Syria, but because if Arab countries, especially Egypt, prove to be successful, Arabs will once again look within for leadership. As important as Ankara has been over the last decade, if Egypt regains its regional luster, Cairo will once again be the central locus of knowledge, cultural production and Middle Eastern political as well as diplomatic power. This is not to say that Turkey would return to a secondary role under such circumstances and its most enduring role in the Middle East is its ability to be the economic engine of the region. Indeed, the best way for Turkey to influence the trajectory of the Arab world undergoing unprecedented change is through its entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to invest in places where others may not. This may not be the grand vision that Erdoğan, Davutoğlu or other AKP leaders had in mind for Turkey in the region, but Turkey’s economic prowess may be the most important factor in ultimately achieving its goal of “zero problems” in the country’s immediate neighborhood.




The Possibility and Limit of Liberal Middle Power Policies


Book Description

This book is a comprehensive analysis of Turkish foreign policy through the concept of “middle power”. The author explores why and how Turkey has constructed middle power identity based on liberal foreign policies, in order to illuminate the change in post-Cold War Turkish state identity in relation to foreign policy behaviors. The author further explores state identity and how changes of circumstances, norms, state self-perception, and the perceptions of others effects that identity. This is done first through a policy analysis of Turgut Özal, Necmettin Erbakan and İsmail Cem and second through an examination of AKP’s foreign policy experiences and ideas, especially in relation to Ahmet Davutoğlu.




Turkish Foreign Policy and its Regional Implications


Book Description

Turkey’s Middle East policy has transformed in recent years and is now more involved in the region, employs more soft power tools and actively engages in third party roles in regional conflicts. Turkey has improved its relations with bordering states as a result of its “zero problems with neighbors” policy. This paper examines the elements of a new Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East and focuses on the reasons for its evolution as well as its structural conditions and political leadership. In discussing these factors this paper aims to identify the circumstances that have created an opening for change. It is argued that those structural conditions which emerged at the beginning of the new millennium coincided with a strategic political leadership that led to this transformation. It is also emphasized that “pull factors” have been important for a new Turkish engagement with the Middle East. Perspectives on Turkey in the region have become more positive in recent years. However, different actors in the Arab world have different perceptions of Turkey and its importance for the region. Some focus on Turkey as a strategic asset in the constantly shifting and highly volatile regional balance of power, while others perceive Turkey more as an important economic partner and critical for the debates on political reform in the region. Finally, this paper focuses on the issue of sustainability of Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East in the face of certain challenges, especially the so-called “Arab Spring”, which has presented difficulties for Turkey in light of the instabilities in various Arab countries and has challenged Turkey’s political and economic interests. The AKP government’s policy towards the region has therefore been evolving and during its first term it positioned itself outside of the polarizations and conflicts in the region and firmly tied its policy to the EU accession process. Such a policy was not only good for Turkey – providing political and economic opportunities – it was also beneficial for the Middle East. However, since 2008 the AKP government’s policy has begun to shift slightly and Turkey would appear to have become more involved in regional polarizations, particularly in relation to Israel and Iran. The weakening of the EU anchor has further contributed to Turkey’s entanglement in the Middle East and the challenge now for Turkey has grown since the geo-political conditions that made Turkey more active in the region have changed. Ultimately, the success of Turkish diplomacy in the Middle East will depend on how far it will manage to respond to the momentous transformations taking place in the region.




Turkey’s Foreign Policy Narratives


Book Description

This book offers a comprehensive account of Turkey's foreign policy narratives in a period of global power shifts. By examining international and national historical processes, the author highlights narrative processes and traditions that describe Turkey and its position in world politics. He also analyzes how global power shifts, such as the rise of China, affect Turkey's increasingly active and confusing foreign policy and the narratives associated with it. The book covers topics such as Kemalist modernization, Islamic conservative views of the New World Order, Turkey's relations with non-Western countries such as Russia and China, and Turkish narratives of the Syrian war and the COVID-19-pandemic. It is intended for scholars of international relations and European and Middle Eastern politics, and appeals to anyone interested in Turkish history and politics.




Turkey's New Foreign Policy


Book Description

Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), after coming to power in 2002, sought to play a larger diplomatic role in the Middle East. The AKP adopted a proactive foreign policy to create ‘strategic depth’ by expanding Turkey’s zone of influence in the region, drawing on the opportunities of geography, economic power and imperial history to reconnect the country with its historical hinterland. Yet despite early promise, this policy came undone after the Arab upheavals of 2011 and has seen Turkey increasingly at odds with its neighbours and the West. Turkey's New Foreign Policy outlines the key tenets of the AKP’s policy of strategic depth in the Middle East and how this marks a departure from traditional Turkish foreign policy. Particular attention is focused on the Turkish reaction to the political changes that swept through the Arab world – including the Syrian civil war – and presented Turkey with its most significant foreign-policy challenge to date. Based on extensive primary research of Turkish-language sources, this monograph argues that political changes in the Middle East have precipitated a serious decline in Turkish regional influence, reversing earlier gains in influence after the AKP came to power. However, despite these foreign-policy defeats, the AKP has shown little indication that it is willing to scale back its ambitions, insisting that it stands on the right side of history – drawing a clear distinction between Turkey and the West.




The Foreign Policies of Middle East States


Book Description

Preface p. vii 1 Introduction: The Analytical Framework Raymond Hinnebusch p. 1 2 The Middle East Regional System Raymond Hinnebusch p. 29 3 The Impact of the International System on the Middle East B.A. Roberson p. 55 4 The Challenge of Security in the Post--Gulf War Middle East System Nadia El-Shazly and Raymond Hinnebusch p. 71 5 The Foreign Policy of Egypt Raymond Hinnebusch p. 91 6 The Foreign Policy of Israel Clive Jones p. 115 7 The Foreign Policy of Syria Raymond Hinnebusch p. 141 8 The Foreign Policy of Iraq Charles Tripp p. 167 9 The Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia F. Gregory Gause III p. 193 10 The Foreign Policy of Libya Tim Niblock p. 213 11 The Foreign Policy of Tunisia Emma C. Murphy p. 235 12 The Foreign Policy of Yemen Fred Halliday p. 257 13 The Foreign Policy of Iran Anoushiravan Ehteshami p. 283 14 The Foreign Policy of Turkey Philip Robins p. 311 15 Conclusion: Patterns of Policy Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Raymond Hinnebusch p. 335 Glossary p. 351 Bibliography p. 355 The Contributors p. 365 Index p. 369 About the Book p. 381.