Turkish Foreign Policy

Abstract

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? These questions require a proper analysis of the major changes that have taken place in Turkey's own domestic scene, its surrounding regions, and the global order in the first decade of the 2ist century. In an age of increasing interdependence, local and global dynamics affect each other and bring about new synergies. Turkey's adjustment to the post-Cold War world and the challenges of globalization has taken various forms, ranging from a heightened sense of insecurity and new types of nationalism to embracing globalization and exploring new diplomatic and economic tools. While Europe and the US generally treated Turkey as a military ally under NATO during much of the Cold War, the new realities of volatile globalization and multiple modernities have both enabled and forced Turkey to reinvent itself as a new political, economic, and diplomatic power.1 In addition to pursuing EU membership as a strategic goal, even though not much progress has been made since 2005, Turkey has been diversifying its foreign policy agenda in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and engaging in multiple regional issues. Turkey is also rising as a soft power with a strong economy, a young population, and new cultural ties with the peoples of the Middle East and the Balkans.2To understand why and how Turkish foreign policy is transforming, I shall examine three interrelated issues. The first is the reasons behind the new dynamism in Turkey's foreign policy thinking and action. The elements that drive Turkey's new strategic thinking and modes of action need to be explained within the larger context of the new geostrategic environment in which Turkey has found itself in the 2ist century. The second is the overarching goals and principles of the new mindset that has propelled Turkey into new areas of expansion, engagement, risk-taking, and influence. These goals and principles display both change and continuity and shape Turkey's new ventures on a number of regional and global issues. The third is the instruments and mechanisms that Turkey employs in realizing its foreign policy goals. The successive AKP governments since 2002 have implemented a number of policies, including developing stronger bilateral relations, lifting visa requirements, establishing high strategic councils, and increasing Turkey's mediation efforts.My main argument is that while adjusting itself to the ever-changing dynamics of 21st-century globalization, Turkey operates from a broad foreign policy perspective that combines elements of constructivist and realist approaches to global politics and international relations. Turkey projects its sense of identity and history into its regional and global engagements, seeks to pursue a value-based and principled foreign policy, and responds to the hard realities of power struggles and national interest. …