Turkey's Engagement with Its Neighborhood: A “Synthetic” and Multidimensional Look at Turkey's Foreign Policy Transformation

Abstract This article argues that a synthetic look at different dimensions of Turkey's engagement of its neighborhood, be it movement of people, civil society interactions and economic exchanges, offers a better understanding of both the broader context within which Turkey's foreign policy is changing and the precise modalities through which this transformation is taking place. This engagement offers a range of opportunities from assisting neighboring countries, including the Arab world, to reform and modernize economically as well as politically to nudging the neighborhood to seek greater interdependence, dialog and cooperation. This would be promising in terms of “win-win” outcomes for Turkey, the European Union (EU) and the region. Such an interdependent and integrated neighborhood around Turkey could unleash economic, social and political processes that may eventually lead to a “democratic peace” in the region even if it might be in the very distant future. However, a number of tough challenges from reinvigorating democratization in Turkey and revitalizing EU–Turkish relations to stubborn regional conflicts would have to be addressed. Governments as well as civil society, academia and the think-tank world ought to start to think about what to do with these challenges. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Efe Tokdemir with the research for this article and the valuable comments of Mine Eder. I would also like to thank the anonymous referees of Turkish Studies for their constructive comments. Notes This article is an abridged and revised version of the paper that received the “Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award” in June 2011. The full version of the paper can be obtained from the author. Space precludes the inclusion of a review of this literature in this article. However, this review is available in the Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award version of the paper. This paper recognizes that the term “new” for Turkish foreign policy is contested. The term appears to have become popular especially subsequent to Ahmet Davutoğlu's article “Turkey's Foreign Policy Vision: An Assessment of 2007,” appeared in the first issue of Insight Turkey in 2008 and the journal announced this particular issue as “Turkey's New Foreign Policy Vision.” Since then, many articles have employed the term. This paper uses the term in a broader sense to cover a transformation in Turkish foreign policy that started before the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power. This paper supports the view raised by a number of analysts that AKP's foreign policy is a reflection both of “continuity” and “change” in Turkish foreign policy. 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