Turkish Foreign Policy

Published date01 March 2012
DOI10.1177/002070201206700102
Date01 March 2012
AuthorIbrahim Kalin
Subject MatterArticle
| International Journal | Winter 2011-12 | 7 |
Ibrahim Kalin is chief policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan and director of the office of public diplomacy.
Ibrahim Kalin
Turkish foreign
policy
Framework, values, and mechanisms
The expansion and the new directions of Turkish foreign policy over the last
decade have generated a lively debate in domestic and foreign policy circles,
among diplomats, analysts, academics, journalists, and businesspeople, and
in civil society. The debate revolves around the transformation of Turkey’s
foreign policy agenda against the backdrop of major shifts in regional and
global power structures. Various questions, some well informed and others
rather rhetorical, are posed to assess Turkey’s standing in global politics.
Are Turkey’s recent engagements in multiple regions a new phenomenon
generated and sustained by the ruling Justice and Development party’s
(AKP’s) domestic agenda? Is Turkey’s newfound interest in the Middle
East and the larger Muslim world a result of the “Islamization” of Turkey,
as some critics claim? Has Turkey given up on the European Union and
thus its traditional alliance with the west? Also, has Turkey found a balance
between “actor” and “structure,” i.e., does the current foreign policy amount
to more than the individual, self-proclaimed initiatives of successive AKP
governments? Finally, is Turkey a model for the Arab world?

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