IR literature has proposed tangible and intangible criteria for defining and differentiating rankings of countries, albeit without much success. The literature's limited success is primarily due to the subjective, unclear and immeasurable qualities of these criteria. The differentiation between small powers and middle powers is particularly ambiguous. This article proposes an amalgamated method, which combines foreign policy behavior capabilities to characterize and separate small powers and middle powers. There is a relationship between capabilities and a country's global status ranking that also determines foreign policy behavior. This also underlines a complementarity between national capabilities and foreign policy objectives. Lower capabilities means a low-key/restrained foreign policy but do higher capabilities mean a more proactive/highly strung foreign policy? Increased capabilities boost the position of a country from a small power to a middle power but do not completely eliminate constraints imposed by great powers. This article examines Turkey's experiences since the 1930s as an empirical narrative of the complementarity between power and level of influence.

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In the post-Cold War era, with democratic peace theory on the rise, efforts to promote democracy around the world have flourished. Western and Western democratic values-oriented states in particular have acted on the belief that democracy promotion would contribute to world peace. Yet this process is not as utopian as described; it is also highly contingent, with no single prescription for success nor common idea of what the end result should look like. This study elaborates the problematic aspects of democracy promotion by examining the case of US and EU democracy promotion in the Western Balkans. The problems uncovered in this analysis fall into three categories: 1) those stemming from the very nature of democracy promotion as an exercise, 2) those specific to the promoters of democracy and 3) those relating to the particular characteristics or circumstances of the target state or region. Based on the analysis, this study concludes that such problems will continue to arise so long as the promoters of democracy continue to approach the process monolithically, without sensitivity to, and synchronization with, the cultural and political realities on the ground in target states. ÖzSoğuk Savaş sonrası dönemde, demokratik barış teorisinin yükselişe geçişiyle birlikte tüm dünyada demokrasiyi teşvik çabaları hız kazanmıştır. Demokrasinin dünya barışına katkıda bulunacağı düşüncesiyle hareket eden Batılı ve Batılı demokratik değerleri benimsemiş devletlerin bu tasavvurları, ütopyacı olmamakla beraber kalıcı barış için ne tek bir reçete ne de sonuçlara dair ortak bir fikir birliği mevcuttur. Bu çalışmada, demokrasiyi teşvik siyasetinin sorunlu yönleri, Avrupa Birliği ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri'nin Batı Balkanlardaki demokrasiyi teşvik siyasetinin karşılaştırmalı analizi üzerinden ortaya konulmaya çalışılmıştır. Makalede demokrasiyi teşvik siyasetinin sorunlu yönleri; demokrasiyi teşvik uygulamasının doğası kaynaklı, demokrasiyi teşvik süreçlerini yürüten dış aktörlere özgün, ve demokrasinin teşvikinin hedef ülke ve bölgelerin nitelikleri veya koşulları kaynaklı olmak üzere üç kategoride değerlendirilmiştir. . Çalışmada, demokrasiyi teşvik eden dış aktörlerin, monolitik bakış açılarını devam ettirdikleri, sahadaki hassasiyetlere dikkat etmeksizin hareket ettikleri, demokrasiyi teşvik çabalarını senkronize etmedikleri ve sahadaki kültürel ve siyasi gerçekleri göz ardı ettikleri sürece problemlerin devam edeceği sonucuna varılmıştır.

No abstract

Minority regulations in Bulgaria from the communist takeover to the end of the Stalinist era were shaped under the influence of socialist internationalist policies, which envisaged the preservation of ethnic and cultural differences for generating class solidarity among the Bulgarian citizens. However, in practice, the constitutional safeguards and promises given to them were often ignored by the state for the sake of constructing a modern socialist society. The discrimination increased further during the post-Stalinist years in parallel with the regime’s ideological shift away from communist orthodoxy towards nationalism. The statesponsored discriminatory policies had far-reaching consequences for the Turks, the largest and most culturally aware of all ethnic minorities. Perceived as an alien element of the Bulgarian society, throughout the entire socialist period, Turkish minority was subjected to integrationist/assimilationist policies and forcibly expelled from the country at times when these policies did not produce the desired results. This article focuses on the discriminatory policies and practices forced upon the Turkish minority by the Bulgarian Communist Party during the era of state socialism, and intends to inquire into their results.