The Foreign Policy of the “New Turkey”: Priorities, Challenges and Contradictions

Abstract

Turkish foreign policy making under the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) rule has been at the centre of scholarly debates since the party first came to power in 2002. Interest to the subject maximised in a way during the 2010s, raising serious concerns over its manifestation in the field – not only in the Middle East, but also in other parts of the world. Contrary to what was initially believed, mostly by Western scholars, the AKP did not shift Turkish foreign policy away from Turkey’s westernization vision. The AKP rather adapted to the changing global conditions of our time, affected by and being in constant dialogue with, the socio-economic and political aspects of the party’s vision of founding the “New Turkey”. The collective goal of the present collection of articles in this special issue is to show how – and in what complex ways – Turkish foreign policy has changed over the years, and discuss the nature of the changes through three distinct themes: priorities, challenges and contradictions.