The Middle East as a Regional Security Complex: Continuities and Changes in Turkish Foreign Policy Under the JDP Rule (original) (raw)
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This paper aims to analyse Turkish Foreign Policy (TFP) in the post September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks period. In this regard, while examining security relations between Turkey and the neighbouring states, it employs Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) which takes the geography as complexes that are shaped through securitization processes based on historic friendship and hostility relationships. Further it examines the RSCT conceptualisation of Turkey as an insulator state which is excluded from all encircling RSCs and also separating them from each other. In this regard, while analysing the impacts of security and conflict related issues in the surrounding RSCs on foreign policy making processes in Turkey, the viability of the insulator state role attributed to Turkey in the international conjuncture is also evaluated through utilising prospective scenarios.
This study argues that the post-Cold War changes in Turkish foreign and security policy (FSP) can best be understood as the regionalization of strategic and security outlook in Turkey. Here regionalization refers to two interrelated processes: first, the process whereby security interest definitions and threat perceptions in Turkey have gained an increasingly regional character, and second the process whereby Turkey has increasingly defined itself as an activist regional power. Yet, the current study takes issue with the widespread assumption that regionalist activism of Turkish FSP can only be appropriated to the recent Justice and Development Party governments. Rather, it argues that the regionalist activism observed in the 2000s should be conceived as the second regionalist turn in Turkish FSP. The first wave of regionalization began soon after the end of the Cold War and developed in parallel to the rise of the ‘region’ as a new unit of security in global politics. This study compares and contrasts these two regionalist eras with a view to exploring the post-Cold War regionalization of FSP in Turkey
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This study investigates why there is a change in Turkish foreign policy in 2010s in the context of the Middle Eastern security complex through a "before-after" comparison. The main argument of the present research is that the change in the Middle Eastern regional security complex brought by the Arab uprisings, which is perceived and mediated by the Turkish foreign policy-makers through a foreign policy decision-making process, led to changes in Turkish foreign policy. In exploring this causal mechanism, the change in Turkish foreign policy is identified as adjustment, program, and problem and goal changes according to Charles F. Hermann"s typology for foreign policy change in terms of outcomes. Then, the Regional Security Complex Theory is used as an instrumental theory to research the elements of the Middle Eastern security complex and the change in the structure. The analytical findings of the mentioned chapter demonstrate that there was internal transformation of the regional security structure through the change in the patterns of amity and enmity in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings. Lastly, a foreign policy decision-making approach which concerns identification of the foreign policy problem and decision unit dynamics is employed in order to determine the role of the Turkish foreign policy leadership and decision-making. At this point, the empirical findings suggest that Turkish foreign policy-makers perceived developments and challenges in the regional security structure as a foreign policy problem, considered strategic beliefs and objectives as fundamental, and made decision for foreign policy change through "concurrence" within the single group decision unit based on groupthink.
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How is Turkey's Middle East Policy examined within the framework of foreign policy analysis after the 2000 ? The Justice and Development Party government, which came to power in the 2002 general elections, represents one of the important breakpoints in the post-Cold War period for Turkish Foreign Policy. Since the establishment of a Western-oriented foreign policy followed by Turkey, the Turkish foreign policy together with the AKP government and Turkey have experienced significant transformations, especially away from the traditional attitude has pursued a more active policy in the Middle East. This research examines that Turkey's policies in the Middle East in the period of the AKP government within the framework of the role theory with a constructive approach. To this end, Turkish foreign policy aimed at the Middle East the relationship between the roles undertaken and Turkey's foreign policy identity will be examined. In this article, among the important foreign policy principles of Turkey, the multilateral diplomacy, the ‘zero problem’ with neighboring countries, the ‘model’ from ‘country to’ Central ' country, soft power, economic-oriented foreign policy and security-freedom balance policies will be discussed. This research will also examine the foreign policy of the AKP in the period of 2003-2009 and Ahmet Davutoglu's foreign policy in 2009-2013, which is an important turning point in the AKP's foreign policy. This research will examine the geo-political, economic, and strategic importance of Turkey particularly for the Middle East which shares a long common history with Turkey. Keywords: Turkish Foreign Policy, Middle East, Justice and Development Party, Zero Problem Policy, Soft Power, Ahmet Davutoğlu.
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This study argues that the post-Cold War changes in Turkish foreign and security policy (FSP) can best be understood as the regionalization of strategic and security outlook in Turkey. Here regionalization refers to two interrelated processes: first, the process whereby security interest definitions and threat perceptions in Turkey have gained an increasingly regional character, and second the process whereby Turkey has increasingly defined itself as an activist regional power. Yet, the current study takes issue with the widespread assumption that regionalist activism of Turkish FSP can only be appropriated to the recent Justice and Development Party governments. Rather, it argues that the regionalist activism observed in the 2000s should be conceived as the second regionalist turn in Turkish FSP. The first wave of regionalization began soon after the end of the Cold War and developed in parallel to the rise of the 'region' as a new unit of security in global politics. This ...