Interview with Joel Migdal (original) (raw)
Related papers
Conclusion: Turkey and the Middle East in an Age of Turbulence
Turkey’s Relations with the Middle East, 2017
Since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, Turkish foreign policy was predominantly based upon Westernization, the balance of power, and the preservation of status quo principles. In connection with these norms, Turkey followed an isolationist approach and avoided Middle Eastern entanglements during the Cold War era. However, these principles were no longer responding to the needs and ambitions of modern Turkey in the early twenty-first century. The US withdrawal from Iraq and the corresponding decline in its regional influence, the Sunni-Shi'a sectarian divisions, and the relatively passive stance of Russia left a power vacuum in the Middle East that paved a way for increased Turkish interventionism. Not surprisingly, Turkish foreign policy has been transformed noticeably under the AKP (Justice and Development Party) rule since 2002. More importance has been given to historically neglected areas and regions, particularly the neighboring countries and the Middle East. Turkish foreign policy has tried to be more proactive, more multidimensional, and more assertive regarding its own policy priorities. The most visible area of this new foreign policy initiative has been the Middle East. Turkey's geostrategic location, historical roots in the area, and its religious and cultural bonds provide it with more opportunities than any extra-regional power. Furthermore, both the acute and the newly emerging problems in Turkey's neighborhood require more proactive and rhythmic foreign policy objectives. Simply stating, with an emphasis on the use of soft power, a more determined role has been envisioned for Turkey, making it an active regional and global power. The most important aspect of Turkey's new foreign policy is the "zero problems with neighbors' policy" which stated that the most important goal of Turkey is to be "a strategic country." This policy initially aims to "normalize" foreign relations
Turkish Foreign Policy in the Middle East After the Arab Spring
The social and political earthquake that has shaken the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the end of the 2010 has completely changed the political landscape of the region. In terms of both domestic politics and geopolitics. Among the countries of the Middle East, Turkey it has been one of the most affected by the so-called Arab Spring, due to the important influence that it had acquired after the emergence of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) as the ruling party of Turkey. The paper focuses on Turkish foreign policy and on how the Arab Spring has changed it. In the introduction an account will be given to describe what happened in the region from the 2010 until today. Then, in the first part of the analysis it will be addressed the historical position of Turkey in the region and the limits of its Middle Eastern politics due to various structural factors (USSR, PKK and domestic political instability), at least until the 2000s. After that, it will be described Turkish foreign policy right before the uprisings. The second part will be the bulk of the analysis, in which it will be described the major changes in the stance of Turkey in the MENA, after the Arab Spring. At the end we will see that through the lens of a “short run” analysis the position of Turkey in the Middle East seems to be now compromised. While with a “long term” perspective, given the instability of the new polities emerged after the uprisings, the foreign policy adopted by AKP to face the Arab Spring could turn out to be good for Turkish position in the MENA.
Turkey's Changing Middle East Policy
2010
This article aims to discuss recent developments in Turkey’s Middle East policy. After a brief historical background of Turkey’s relations with the region, it focuses on understanding the change in terms of both the level and nature of involvement in the region. Within that context, the article looks at systemic/structural as well as ideational and domestic politics explanations. Then the current policy is discussed through its three elements: improvement of relations with neighbors, characterized as “zero problems with neighbors policy”; eagerness to play third party roles in regional conflicts; attempts to increase economic interdependence with the region. Through the discussion of these cases the article attempts to discuss the possibilities and limitations of Turkey’s new engagement.
Turkey's Foreign Policy Towards the Middle East
This study, considering the points stated above, is an attempt to examine the impacts of Ankara’s Middle East policy from the Turkish perspective; to evaluate the internal and external dynamics of the relations with Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and, in this context, with the US, Russia and Iran, respectively, and to draw a conclusion on how Ankara should take action.
Turkey's Foreign Policy and the Arab Spring (DGAP conference paper)
“The Changing Face of the Middle East” Conference 2012
In the past decade, Turkey has been going through the most significant transformation since the foundation of the Republic, reshaping and restructuring its domestic politics and political system as well as its foreign policy. The Erdoğan government, inspired by Davutoğlu’s Strategic Depth Doctrine, has ended the decades-old Kemalist foreign policy and turned Turkey to face its neighborhood, particularly the Middle East. Ankara has been a staunch supporter of the democratization processes of the Arab Spring from Tunisia to Libya to Egypt to Syria. Providing encouragement and assistance to the newly forming Arab democracies, Turkey also pursues a Neo-Ottoman policy through which it has been expanding its regional and international role. Played right, Turkey, as the only Muslim society in the region with a functioning secular democracy, may serve as an inspiration for the democratic movements of the Arab world and can eventually emerge from these tumultuous times as the leading power of the region.
The transformation and power struggle in the Middle East after the Arab Spring and actual withdrawal of the USA in December 2011 from Iraq and therefore from the Middle East caused serious changes in the dynamics and balances of the region. The aim of this paper is to investigate evolving foreign policy strategies, activities of both regional and global actors on Middle East from the perspective of Turkey. The changes in the Middle East policy of Turkey after such changes and the effects of regional and systemic actors on such changes were studied comparatively with the foreign policies of Iran and Saudi Arabia. The national powers of Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the effective power centers in the region, were measured and compared to each other. Within this context, it was attempted to reveal the roles that these countries assumed in the changes in the region based on their powers from the perspective of Turkey. Furthermore, the critiques of relations of Turkey with the region countries and the foreign policy approaches it abortively produced against the regional changes were assessed within the new atmosphere developing in the Middle East.