Abstract
This article contributes to the study of Russian great powerness, focusing on the potential of the Russian-Turkish and Russian-Israeli relations to influence the construction of Russias great power status in a multipolar world. Based upon Russian and English literature dedicated to the study of great power concept and Russian great powerness, authors adopt analytic eclecticism for the theoretical framework of the study. In this regard, for a comprehensive understanding of Russian great powerness, both constructivism with its focus on identity, and neorealism stressing national interests, security, and power, are applied. The authors actively employ the official documents, international agreements, statements of government officials, and official declarations. As a result, the study examines to what extent bilateral relations with Turkey and Israel, the Wests traditional non-Western allies, can contribute to the construction of Russian great power identity. For this purpose, first of all, the factors of Russian great power construction and its role in Russian foreign policy are examined. After addressing the efficiency of great power status as a foreign policy tool, the development of Russian-Turkish and Russian-Israeli relations are discussed. It is concluded that Russia has developed strategically significant relations with Turkey and Israel despite the deteriorated relations with the West, and the development of these relations has supported the consolidation of Russias great power status at the international and regional levels. Furthermore, the study suggests that Russian-Turkish and Russian-Israeli bilateral relations can enable Russia to strengthen its great power status vis--vis the West via cooperation and competition and contribute to the construction of a multipolar world.
Highlights
Russia’s great power status is an extensive concept that should be comprehended in terms of both material and ideational parameters
Great powerness is an element of Russian national identity as a historical continuity, evolving with Russia’s belonging to and exclusion from the West
Securing Russian great power status, which is possible in a multipolar world system, requires Russia to maintain better relations with the West, and prevent a total the US-Chinesepolarisation of the world order
Summary
Russia’s great power status is an extensive concept that should be comprehended in terms of both material and ideational parameters. Turkey and Israel constitute suitable directions for contributing the study of Russian great powerness beyond the Western direction, as they are Western-oriented non-western countries, that Russia’s relations cannot be understood as a pro-Western or anti-Western. In spite of deteriorated relations with the West, Russia could maintain pragmatic relations with the traditionally Western allies such as Turkey and Israel in the Middle East, where it has strengthened its great power status through military and diplomatic achievements. In the light of this picture, Russia obtains the opportunity to employ its relations with Turkey and Israel, it developed under Vladimir Putin’s presidency, as a leverage in its relations with the West and to enhance its great power role in a multipolar world order
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