Profiling Middle Powers in Global Governance and the Turkish Case: An Introduction

Abstract

This study aims to investigate first whether Turkey fits into a middle power status and second the tools and mechanisms it uses to pursue its middle power diplomacy at both regional and global levels. In doing so, it first focuses on the existing literature on middle powers. Then, it tries to understand Turkey’s institutional, material, and behavioral patterns that are connected to middle power concepts. In the final analysis, the present study underlines that Turkey seems eager to pursue middle power diplomacy despite its weak middle power identity, its limited middle power means, and the recent deterioration in its relations with its traditional allies, the United States and the EU. In fact, its evolving middle power identity and consciousness about its capacity to enact a middle power role may open new horizons for its developing middle powermanship. However, while constructing its middle power identity, Turkey must also craft its new international role based on its developing material power as well as its ideational and democratic power. Turkey’s strong attachment to universal values and democracy would certainly contribute positively to its middle power identity in-the-making and transform it into a complete middle power state, capable of establishing a delicate balance between its regional and global responsibilities.