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Examines crypto-optimism in Turkish-Greek relations. Distrust between the two nations created by their 'living history'; Conflict between the two nations stemming from the fact that both Turkey and Greece have obtained their national identities by fighting against, and interacting with each other.

Discusses the role played by Great Britain (GB) in the counter-revolution in Turkey on March 31, 1909 against the Young Turks. Attitude of GB toward differences of opinion within various Young Turks groups and between them and the government; Policy of GB after the suppression of the counter-revolution; Implications of the Young Turks' revolution for the Anglo-Turkish relations.

The main argument of this paper is that Turkey had close relations with Middle Eastern states during the Atatürk period, which is contrary to the literature that claims the opposite because of Turkey's Western-oriented ideology. The article asks why Turkey as a Western-oriented state sought to have close relations with Middle Eastern states. To answer this question, the article uses discourse analysis focusing on Middle Eastern leaders' visits as represented in Turkish public discourse. Accordingly, it proposes two main answers. Firstly, the paper argues that the new state's relations with Middle Eastern countries played an important role in legitimation of its Westernization projects in the eyes of its citizens. Secondly, the Turkish state marginalized rival political discourses, mainly Islamism, by proving that even Muslim majority countries wanted to imitate modern Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the first wave of migration from Turkey to North Cyprus (1975–1980), which is largely absent from existing migration literature. Through extensive oral history interviews with influential policy makers, policy implementers and opposition politicians of the period, as well as through in-depth interviews with immigrants, the complexly interwoven socio-economic and political-ideological parameters of this migratory movement is discussed. Thereby the paper endeavours to challenge the dichotomy between voluntary 'labour migrations' characterised by a predominant economic dimension, and 'ethnic migrations', which stand out due to their strong political-ideological dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, Turkish policymakers have perceived the possible emergence of a Kurdish autonomous region or an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq as an existential threat to Turkey. However, from 2008 onwards, under the Justice and Development Party government, Turkish foreign policy towards the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was gradually desecuritized. In light of Turkey's experience, this paper explores the role of context in desecuritizing foreign policy issues in general and Turkish foreign policy towards the KRG in particular. It argues that the changing civil–military relations in Turkey as well as the country's broader political and economic conjuncture allowed for the desecuritization of Turkey-KRG relations from 2008 onwards. The context also determined what kind of a desecuritization Turkey experienced towards the KRG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper's main objective is to explain the concept of transactionalist foreign policy in detail and to demonstrate how it applies to a real-world case in Turkish foreign policy towards the EU under the AKP rule. We define transactionalism as a foreign policy approach that favours bilateral to multilateral relations, focuses on short-term wins rather than longer-term strategic foresight, adheres to a zero-sum worldview where all gains are relative and reciprocity is absent, rejects value-based policymaking, and does not follow a grand strategy. This paper also provides a new layer to the existing periodisation of AKP's EU policy through framing the EU as 'a foreign policy actor' in Turkey-EU relations. Scholars divide Turkey's EU policy under the AKP government into three broad periods: Europeanisation, selective Europeanisation and De-Europeanisation. We complement this literature by adding another layer of analysis that focuses on Turkey's foreign relations in its broader region, including the EU, and argue that Turkey's relations with the EU were characterised by the zero-problems doctrine during the selective Europeanisation period, and by civilisational competition with the EU during the de-Europeanisation period, and by transactionalism since 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the coup attempt of 2016, bilateral ties between Ankara and Tehran have witnessed a significant boost. Using and refining Steven David's framework of omni-balancing, which argues that the conduct of foreign policy in Third World settings also takes stock of domestic threats to the regime, this paper explains this emerging rapprochement. The article argues that after 2016, the AKP's foreign policy became increasingly predicated on regime survival, which was also reflected in Ankara-Tehran ties. This rapprochement was strengthened by both countries' intersecting positions on the following issues (1) A mutual pro-Qatar stance in the recent Saudi Arabia-Qatar spat, (2) Mutual opposition to a Kurdish state in northern Iraq, and (3) Increasingly troubled relations with the US. Through a careful analysis of Turkish and Persian sources along with official discourses, this paper will expand on these key aspects of these significantly improved bilateral relations between both countries and will conclude with discussion of its durability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the Europeanization of Turkey's foreign policy by examining Turkey's mediating role in the Israel–Palestine dispute. The paper assesses whether, to what extent and how the EU shaped Turkey's mediating role in the conflict. It is concluded that Turkish political actors used the EU to justify certain policies and their relations with certain actors, which would otherwise be considered unacceptable. Given its indirect impact on Turkey's mediation, the EU's role in Turkish foreign policy should not be exaggerated. There seems to be no evidence in this case that Turkish foreign policy-makers internalized EU foreign-policy norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact the European Union (EU) accession process has had on Turkish political parties—the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP)—as far as their internal structures and intra-party distribution of power are concerned. The paper contends that political parties in Turkey have not only been immune to any organizational adaptation that may have resulted from the accession process, but in the past decade, they have become increasingly de-Europeanized. This insularity from Europeanization impulses can be attributed to Turkey’s personalized political system and the ineffectiveness of the parliamentary institutions responsible for EU policy, especially the EU Harmonization Committee. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to shed light on Turkey's conflict management role after the Cold War using a three-layered framework consisting of the layers of actorness, approaches and tools. In doing so, it seeks to profile Turkey's international conflict management since the Cold War years with a special focus on the nature of its participation in conflict management as an active or passive actor, the perspectives from which it approaches conflict management, and the conflict management instruments it utilises. First, the paper will provide a conceptual framework of international conflict management based on the above-mentioned triad of actorness, approaches and tools as derived from the existing literature. Second, it will apply the selected three-layered analytical framework to Turkey to decipher its strengths and limitations in managing international conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's foreign policy approach towards the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been predicated on an integrationist vision through cooperation and dialogue over the past decade. The Arab Spring significantly challenged Turkey's role as a strategic interconnector and set the stage for broader debates on foreign policy orientation. This paper suggests that any fair assessment of Ankara's performance in the MENA must take into account the significant constraints imposed on Turkish foreign policy objectives by regional power rivalries and growing Western detachment from the region. The paper sheds light on the impact of global and regional powers' responses to the Arab Spring for Middle Eastern order and outlines a possible trajectory for the transformation of Turkish foreign policy to ensure effective Turkish activism in the post-Arab Spring environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Discusses the effect and the influence that three newspapers-`Paik-i Islam,'`Al-Khalifa' and `al-Ghayrat' had upon Anglo-Ottoman relations in the second half of the nineteenth century. Pro-Ottoman stand taken by the Muslim newspapers during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878; Vernacular Press Act of 1878; More.

While Turkish faith-based NGOs have been involved in delivering humanitarian aid for two decades, the relations of these organizations with the state have not received adequate scholarly attention. The main purpose of this article is to address this gap by asking what roles NGOs play in Turkey's humanitarian aid policy and practice. Despite the relative isolation of Turkey's administrative structure as a result of a strong state tradition, this paper shows that NGOs attempt to play political roles in Turkish foreign policy. The study relies on an analytical framework derived from constructivism to examine the agenda-setting and information-providing activities of Turkish NGOs between 2004 and 2016. Based on findings from a series of semi-structured interviews with 25 respondents from nine different NGOs and three state institutions, this artilce expands the research agenda on Turkey's foreign aid and shows that NGOs function as knowledge-providers, powerful catalysts for humanitarian aid activities, and influential voices in bringing humanitarian issues to light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the rise of the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP), Islam has come to play a more prominent role in public and political spheres in Turkey. This paper draws on ethnographic data gathered in Istanbul and Diyarbakir between 2013 and 2015 to highlight Kurdish attitudes to Islam. Following the electoral success of the AKP amongst Kurds in the general election of 2007, Kurdish actors have sought to incorporate Islamic sensibilities into their political offering in order to appeal to Kurdish constituents. Amid the AKP's recent authoritarian turn and instrumentalization of religion, and the rise of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), many Kurds have sought to redefine their relationship with Islam to clearly demarcate distinctly Kurdish religious and political spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy makers often cite ‘human ties’ as a factor in Turkish–Balkan interstate relations, given the sizeable number of people in Turkey of Balkan origin, and perceived ethno-religious kin in the Balkans. The paper examines the period since 1989, and shows how such individuals and groups have increasingly become subjects in relations between Turkey and the rest of the Balkans. Yet, precisely as trans-state ties have increased in significance, the ‘state’ has also attempted to harness or infiltrate the ‘trans-state’ to further state interests. The paper seeks to show how non-state and state actors have interacted, resulting in an intensification and multiplication of trans-state ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the bilateral relations between Turkey and Syria since the breakout of the popular uprising in 2011, with particular reference to a securitization–desecuritization framework. The author inquires whether Turkish policymakers have securitized the Syrian civil war and framed it in security-laden discourse in the time period under review. Turkey extended strong support to the demonstrations and invested efforts towards a regime change. Assad’s response was unfriendly. Both the Assad regime’s policy vis-à-vis Turkey and the repercussions of the civil war in Syria posed serious threats to Turkish national security. However, based on the analysis of official statements by Turkish authorities during the crisis, the author argues that Turkey avoided framing the Syrian refugee crisis in security terms, whereas border violations, such as the downing of a military aircraft by Syrian regime forces, were defined as threats to national security. The paper further discusses the reasons for Turkey’s selective approach to issues concerning bilateral relations with Syria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of breakthroughs in Iran's contentious affairs with the West necessitate a new way of thinking on Turkey–Iran relations. Hassan Rouhani's victory in the 2013 Iranian presidential elections and the signing of the interim Geneva nuclear agreement between Iran and the ‘P5+1’ shortly thereafter warrant an overhaul of the conventional policies concerning the Islamic Republic. Coupled with the Arab uprisings, recent developments will significantly impact not only the way Turkey and Iran approach each other but also their regional policies. This paper seeks to shed light on the two different modes of engagement that Turkey and Iran have employed vis-à-vis their approach to their shared neighbourhood. That is, while Turkey is positioned to utilize this breakthrough on a global scale to improve its relations with Iran and other countries through ‘humanitarian diplomacy’; on the regional level, Tehran's hegemonic and interest-based ambitions will stoke the subtle rivalry with Ankara. This paper provides a background for the origins of these two different modes of engagement and discusses how they have influenced the dynamics in the region. After pointing out how the recent developments concerning Iran's nuclear programme and engagement in certain regional conflicts shape the Ankara–Tehran dialogue, it concludes with the implications of these competitive approaches for the greater Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates to what extent mediation has been a relevant foreign policy tool during the Arab Spring by looking into the mediation attempts of Turkey, Qatar and Iran. To answer this question, the paper examines why and how these actors mediated, to what extent they were able to apply mediation as a tool of foreign policy, whether their mediation attempts could deliver any results and whether there was a receptive audience with respect to their mediation. Despite certain setbacks, mediation has been a relevant foreign policy tool during the Arab Spring. The uses of mediation by these actors run parallel to their foreign policy priorities. In addition, during the Arab Spring, mediation has proved more effective in small-scale conflicts, such as hostage crises, rather than large-scale ones, such as those between regimes and oppositions. Despite considerable potential for regional powers to take on mediator roles, the effectiveness of their mediation attempts depends on their commitment and reliability as mediators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses Turkey’s responses to the Arab uprisings in the context of its larger foreign policy transformation and regional aspirations. The AKP government seized the uprisings as an opportunity to increase its influence in the region by assigning itself a central role in the transition processes in various countries. In the process, however, Turkey faced a number of setbacks and reversals. Comparing the cases of Libya, Syria, and Egypt, the paper argues that Turkey’s efforts to advance regime change in these sites were marked by inconsistency and incoherence. Furthermore, the paper argues that this trajectory of reactions can be explained only by taking both ideational and domestic factors into account. Despite the shortcomings of Turkey’s actions, however, the article concludes that Turkey has consolidated itself as a regional actor, albeit a controversial one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey is a negotiating candidate for the EU membership. Though the accession negotiations between Turkey and the EU continue in the official sense, in reality, the relations are in a deadlock. It is often argued that Turkey–EU relations have entered a new era since January 2013, and new optimistic comments have emerged. This paper argues that there exists a pull–push balance in the accession process for the EU that normally attracts candidates and makes them more vulnerable to the EU conditions. The success of the political transformation of eastern European states relied to a large extent on the balanced pull–push accession processes. It is argued here that this balance for Turkey has been deteriorated and this fact has made the EU ineffective in transforming Turkish politics and polity. Therefore, this paper argues for the re-establishment of the balance to improve and normalize Turkey–EU relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focusing on the Turkish Middle Eastern foreign policy from the perspective of European Union (EU)–Turkey relations, this paper argues that Turkey's recent activism and attractiveness in the region is attributable to its dual reform and accession process both of which are tied to the EU's anchoring role and leverage over the country. Turkey has self-consciously taken the advantage of its domestic transformation by emulating the EU in its own neighborhood policy. However, to the current stagnation of the accession process and the deepening of Turkey's domestic crisis is now added the new context of the Arab revolutionary movements. The central thesis of this paper, however, is that Turkish foreign policy and rising actorness in the Middle East should not be, solely driven by an interest-driven pragmatism. It should also seek a normative reconciliation with the EU and its process of enlargement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines Turkey's increasing involvement in the Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts as a third party in the last decade. The paper first discusses the underlying reasons and motivations behind the change in Turkish foreign policy. In this section we answer the following question: While the traditional Turkish policy in the Middle East was non-intervention, what factors contributed to this recent change? We discuss these as systemic factors and domestic factors. In the second section of the paper we summarize the theoretical literature on third party intervention and mediation especially focusing on strategies, modes, activities, and tactics used. This section lays the background for the following section which classifies the various Turkish third party strategies and activities in the Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts so far. In the final section we focus on the challenges to this new Turkish role from Turkish, Israeli, and Arab perspectives. We also discuss the crises between Israel and Turkey in the last year and how they constitute a barrier to Turkey acting in an effective third party role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The opening of accession negotiations between Turkey and the EU is a historic turning point for the European Union's foreign policy. This paper proposes that the EU needs to accept Turkey as a member - subject to Turkey's ability to meet all the accession criteria - for the realization of its foreign policy objectives. The opening of accession negotiations with Turkey is a foreign policy decision for the EU with the aim of bringing about a transformation in Turkey as well as guaranteeing stability in the EU's borders in the region where Turkey is located. The paper argues that Turkey's accession is critical for the credibility of the EU's foreign policy and its enlargement process. In addition, Turkey's accession would significantly add to the EU's hard and soft power capabilities, enhancing its role as an international actor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the Turkish export and import flows with regard to regional clusters (RCs) and bilateral trade costs (BTCs) by using a panel data gravity model. We study the role of RCs and BTCs in two complementary parts: in the first part, we use an unbalanced panel data for 180 countries over the period 1960–2012, compiled from the DOTS database. We extend these estimations by running the data at four different time intervals, each representing different economic or political regimes in Turkey. In the second part, we repeat the same exercise at sectoral level for 176 countries over the period 1994–2010, using the BACI database. Aggregate estimates show that the gravity model is very effective in explaining the export and import flows of Turkey and that all close-by regions, including EU27, have a significant impact on trade flows of Turkey. We also find that the EU Customs Union has a negative effect on Turkish exports and a positive effect on imports. Estimates at selected time intervals reinforce aggregate estimates and sectoral level analyses indicate that while some regions contribute positively in all or the majority of sectors, others contribute negatively or produce mixed results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper compares the EU's accession negotiations with Bulgaria and Turkey to assess the conditions under which their negotiations unfolded and the role of bilateral issues in that aspect. To do so, the paper highlights the role of the member state vetoes and bilateral relations in the EU negotiations. It needs to be noted that even though the European Commission condemns the impact of bilateral problems on the accession process, unresolved bilateral issues, nonetheless, emerge as major factors complicating the EU's enlargement process, its effectiveness as well as the pace and nature of the negotiations with multiple applicants and candidates. We look at role of individual member states as veto players on the EU accession negotiations, specifically becoming the most important factor in the Turkish case. We limit our focus to the lack of consensus and commitment among the EU member states towards Turkey as a complicating factor in the EU negotiations. We are able to ascertain that a key difference between Bulgaria and Turkey with regards to their EU accession was the member state vetoes for Turkey's negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being founded in the wake of the First World War, both Turkey and the Soviet Union followed revolutionary modernizing pathways. At the outset, one could trace many similar patterns in their radical modernization paradigms; however, their development models as well as political and social orders were radically distinct, which became more obvious with the passage of time. The paper discusses the external interpretations of Kemalism by observing the Soviet perspectives on the inception and evolution of Kemalism. Paying more attention to diplomatic, geopolitical and economic complexities of the Turkish-Soviet relations, scholars have rarely problematized the Soviet Union perceptions of Turkish ideological transformations. In reality, since the early 1920s, different state institutions, intellectual schools of thought and research in the Soviet Union closely observed the domestic transformations in Turkey by providing valuable insights on the perspective and the implications of the Kemalist transformation. The article also looks at the question of how the incorporation of Soviet perspectives can enrich the historiography and our understanding of Kemalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last several years, the political will of the governing AKP in Turkey to make the historic compromises necessary to complete the peace process with the Kurds has sharply declined. This paper will examine the causes of the breakdown in the Turkish-Kurdish peace process and the Turkish government’s lurch in a nationalist direction in its approach towards the Kurdish minority from the standpoint of ‘securitization’ theory. The key catalysts, it is argued, for the re-emergence of a securitization paradigm in Turkey’s handling of the Kurdish issue are: (1) Turkey’s stalled bid for accession to the European Union; (2) the intensifying electoral competition between AKP and the Kurdish movement parties, coupled with the instrumentalization of the Kurdish peace process to serve President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s quest to install a dominant presidential system and (3) the spillover effects of Syria’s civil war on Turkey’s relations with its own Kurdish populace. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relation between Syria and Turkey transformed from enmity in the 1990s to détente in the early 2000s, grew into amity after the rise to power of the Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP, Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi) in 2002, and reverted to enmity in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. This research suggests that a combination of structural and identity-based factors, at regional and domestic levels, induced the collapse of the decade-long amity. This paper builds on the notion of a “structure-identity nexus”; and determines the orientation of foreign policy outcomes from the 1990s until 2011. The discussion outlines the merits of a hybrid theoretical perspective by elaborating on Barkin’s idea of ‘realist constructivism’, which draws on two rival traditions, realism and constructivism. The structure-identity framework explains the double transformation in the relationship, considering the return to inter- and intra-state conflict in 2011. The research draws on extensive primary and secondary sources, as well as interviews carried out with key figures. In addition to the relationship between Syria and Turkey, the structure-identity nexus provides potential broader explanations that fuel the shift from amity to enmity in the complex network of states found in the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Turkey has thus far been generally neglected in most IR studies on power categorisations, such as middle or middle-range power, regional power or rising/emerging power, despite its rising regional power status in the past decade. This paper attempts to understand Turkey’s regional power together with its rising power status using an integral approach. In doing so, it empirically tests whether or not Turkey fits Daniel Flemes’s ‘regional power’ category, which seems to be proposing a more complete and integral framework through the fulfilment of four basic preconditions: claim to leadership; possession of necessary power resources (material and ideational); employment of material, institutional and discursive foreign policy instruments; and acceptance of leadership by third parties. Based upon these analytical tools, the article will discuss Turkey’s performance in creating a regional impact in its neighbouring regions of the Middle East, the Balkans and the Black Sea and Caucasus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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As a regional power, Turkey aspires to become an influential international actor. As a small state, Qatar seeks to enhance its security and sovereignty and become an indispensable regional middle power. The Arab Spring protests have created an ideal context for both actors to realize their geopolitical goals. However, adverse political developments have turned most Arab Spring countries into battlegrounds wherein old geopolitical rivalries deepened and new regional alliances were constructed. Taking Gaza, Syria and Egypt as cases in point, this paper investigates how Ankara and Doha's evolving practical geopolitical reasoning and its domestic and international representations converged to create venues for cooperation and promotion of relations to a level of political alignment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Turkey has expanded the horizons of its foreign policy in geographical terms, as well as in terms of Ankara's involvement in global issues and in international organizations. Turkey's new foreign policy and line of geopolitical thought marks a considerable degree of discontinuity with the previous era. Turkey's ambition is to take on a central role in world politics under the guidance of the foreign policy vision of former Foreign Minister and current Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. This paper analyses the extent to which Turkey's Foreign Ministry has been able to transform itself in accordance with the new geopolitical thinking under Davutoğlu. It focuses on the capacity building and reform of the Foreign Ministry to understand how policymakers bridge the gap between ideas and institutions to ensure that the geopolitical perspective is an enduring and long-term project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The argument of this paper is that the new foreign policy orientation of Turkey under the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government is a constitutive component of a new nationalist project, constructed and carried out by the AKP over the last decade. The article expounds the ways in which the AKP has reformulated the notions of nation, national history, homeland and national interest and demonstrates the role foreign policy has played in this reformulation. Our point of departure will be the patterns we have observed in the statements and political practices of the AKP government and its officials, particularly the incumbent minister of foreign affairs Ahmet Davutoğlu, whose book, Strategic Depth, presents a more systematic explanation of the major principles and assertions of AKP nationalism and foreign policy. We will also argue that after the Gezi protests in June 2013 this new conception of nation and nationalism has faced with a deep crisis, which has also exacerbated the problem of pursuing an ambitious foreign policy strategy in international arena. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The challenges of the Arab Spring and of Syrian unrest in particular have generated scholarly debate on Ahmet Davutoğlu's broadly appreciated ‘zero problems with neighbours’ principle in Turkish foreign policy. This paper presents an assessment of the viability of the Davutoğlu vision and the changing parameters of foreign policy in a new era. It concludes with a discussion of a crucial question: ‘Is this the end of Davutoğlu's foreign policy vision?’ [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With high interdependence, politicization, and unlikely enlargement, alternative options for EU–Turkey relations beg for consideration. This article argues that, first of all, conceptualization of a new model of EU–Turkey relations must thoroughly account for the evolution of the European project away from uniformity and towards more differentiation as a result of both integration and disintegration pressures. Secondly, an extended model of external differentiated integration has a potential to foster new, more dynamic EU–Turkey relations. However, its practical implementation is constrained by a number of challenges and scope conditions related to preferences and interests of key actors, namely EU institutions, member states and Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important component of Turkey's 'pivotal regional power' status was its nonpermanent seat at the UN Security Council in 2009-11. By focusing on two cases - the 2010 flotilla incident and the Iranian nuclearization - this study examines (1) Turkey's regional and global leadership role at the UN Security Council and (2) how the 'rhythmic diplomacy' principle of Turkey's foreign policy is exercised internationally. This paper also demonstrates that Turkey's policy of cooperation with other pivotal states signals possible future alliances among rising middle powers that might challenge western preferences on important issues. This study is timely as Turkey is seeking, again, non-permanent membership in the Security Council for the 2015-16 term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of brics presents a major challenge to the existing global order. A second category of emerging powers, which may be labelled near-brics, have also displayed increasing pro-activism in recent years in terms of influencing the regional balance of power politics, in addition to their growing presence in international organisations and global affairs. It is in this context that we aim to examine Turkey as a striking example of a ‘near-bric’ power, a country that has adopted an increasingly assertive and independent style of foreign policy with aspirations to establish itself as a major regional actor. Using the Turkish experience as a reference point, this paper aims to understand the extent to which near-bric countries possess the economic capacity, sustainable growth performance and soft-power capabilities needed to establish themselves as significant regional and global actors. The recent Turkish experience clearly highlights both the potential and the limits of regional power activism on the part of emerging powers from the ‘global South’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are undergoing rapid change, many domestic, regional and international actors are vying for space and influence as systems and customs evolve and adopt new forms. This paper characterises and compares the evolving foreign policy strategies of two such regional actors, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. It further assesses the motivations and activities of and challenges to Turkish and Saudi involvement throughout the region since the Arab uprisings. Ultimately these cases provide intriguing insight into the foreign policy purpose and methods of emerging states under conditions of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that Turkey's accession to the EU has been securitised by the French and German right, according to the Copenhagen School's constructivist explanation of securitisation as a 'speech act'. Moreover, like other critical security schools, the Copenhagen School argues that security is not limited to the state or the military, but that securitisation may take place in other sectors, with the political, economic, environmental and societal spheres as its referent object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at introducing the inter-war dimension to the debate on the history of Turkey's association with the idea of European integration. This association evolved in the context of two inter-war initiatives: Aristide Briand's European Union proposal within the framework of the League of Nations and Richard Coudehove-Kalergi's Pan-Europe idea. Although Turkey had been originally excluded from both, the inter-war great power rivalries in Europe rectified the situation, allowing Turkey's incorporation into both schemes. In the process, the Turkish leaders and public could relate to Briand's intergovernmental initiative far more easily than to Coudenhove-Kalergi's Pan-Europe ideal. This might be considered a manifestation of traditional Turkish emphasis on institutional, rather than ideational, aspect of European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkish-US ties came close to crisis in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war, thereby defying the conventional analysis which views the relationship as essentially cooperative. This occurred because experts have based their assessment of the alliance on too selective a view of the historical relationship. This article focuses on a neglected but important issue from the recent past, the opium case of the early 1970s, which provides a more comparable analogy to the 2002–03 Iraq crisis. The paper adopts a thematically analytical approach to the two cases, identifying four factors – national sovereignty, systemic contestation, democratic legitimacy and clientelist reciprocity – as crucial in explaining why the expected cooperation was not forthcoming. More broadly, the article argues that such fundamental issues of domestic importance have to be taken seriously by US foreign policymakers if they wish to galvanize high profile cooperation, even with those regional powers that are already their allies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution suggests a framework for examining Turkish--European relations from the perspective of domestic and external inputs of foreign policy making in Turkey. In viewing the relationship as a unique part of overall Turkish foreign policy orientation, the study employs a multi-level, multi-causal approach and a contextual framework. Accordingly, the paper identifies and deals with three main structural inputs of Turkish foreign policy -- namely, the Ottoman experience and its long-lasting legacy; the geopolitical realities of Turkey; and the ideological foundations defined under the leadership of Atatürk As well as the effects of the recent systemic changes on Turkish foreign policy as an example of conjectural factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about several papers based on Turkey's foreign relations with several countries including Iran, Iraq and Syria.

International relations theories have sometimes been criticized as being focused on a narrow set of ideas and values. This article provides a means by which this problem can be addressed by examining the theories of former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who, prior to joining the government, was an international relations scholar. The article argues that gaining a greater understanding of Davutoğlu’s academic and professional publications is valuable not only to scholars interested in studying Turkey, but also to the study of international relations. Distinguishing him from other thinkers, Davutoğlu’s models are a combination of Islamic values, civilizational theories, and constructivism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article introduces a Special Issue dedicated to applying international relations theories to Turkish foreign policy. More specifically, it contrasts structural or neo-realist approaches with ideational or constructivist ones, suggests general strengths and shortcomings in each, and briefly suggests how both might apply to TFP. It also introduces the eight substantive articles in the Special Issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No country has waited at the front door of the EU as long as Turkey. In addition to Turkey’s different status compared to the EU membership candidacy processes of other countries, there is also an awkward relationship between the EU and the UK, and inevitably the British media. Therefore, this article seeks to present an analytical framework which draws on the notion of ‘a positive Other’ while explaining the representation of Turkey’s EU bid in the British media. The research discusses the inadequacy of Orientalism and the Self/Other nexus to understand the context in the British coverage and highlights the ‘essentialist’ and ‘functionalist’ approaches in its attempt to explain the differences within the EU in exploring the fundamentals of the EU and the view on Turkish membership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on the EU's membership conditionality focuses more on conditionality's domestic impacts than on conditionality itself. The question of how consistently the EU seeks the Copenhagen criteria prior to offering membership is rarely investigated. To fill this gap, this article studies conditionality regarding Turkey, arguing that true conditionality should exclusively link EU demands for compliance with the formal membership criteria to rewards in the accession process. In coding the EU's conditionality signals for “exclusiveness of linkage,” low formal conditionality in Turkey was found. It is concluded that the EU's anticipated costs of “absorbing” Turkey caused its unwillingness to deploy proper formal conditionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]