The Changing Security Landscape in South-Eastern Mediterranean: Assessing Turkey's Strategies as a Rising Power.

The main goal of this paper is to shed light on Turkey's power status as a rising state in the wider region of the South-Eastern Mediterranean and test its strategies to change the balance of power in this region. In doing so, we draw heavily on a novel conceptual framework of Itzkowitz Shifrinson (2020a) that articulates alternative strategies of rising states towards declining great powers based on specific goals and means formulating those strategies. We argue that, given the relative decline of great powers in the region of the South-East Mediterranean, Turkey is a rising power with a strategic vision to maximize its aspirations for leadership and control, and, where possible, alter the status quo. Towards this end, Turkey is employing a broad foreign policy agenda in several policy areas based on a variety of alternative strategies. Through this analysis, we examine and demonstrate the different strategies of Turkey in changing the power balance in three important geopolitical spheres of influence: a) Balkans-Middle East-Caucasus, b) Black Sea-Adriatic-Eastern Mediterranean-Red Sea-Persian Gulf and c) Εurope-N. Africa-S. Asia- Central Asia. Turkey's regional strategies have a considerable impact in the security context vis-à-vis the main great powers in the South-Eastern Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]