Erdoğan's Endless Dreams

Abstract

After the Justice and Development Party (AKP) rose to power in 2002, Turkey's Middle East policy underwent a radical change. Erdoğan's readings of the Arab Spring events are a vivid example of Turkey's new foreign policy. In the last months of 2019 and 2020, Turkey took two other important steps that have attracted the attention of the international community: engagement in Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria without UN Security Council authorization, and steps to reach an agreement with the Libyan government on oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean in tandem with sending troops to Libya. Turkey's recent actions, which violate international law and UN resolutions, raise several questions: what changes have taken place in Turkey's foreign policy? What are its core drivers and main components? And what results will the new policy deliver in the future? We argue that Turkey's behavior conforms to the principles of offensive realism. The shift in Turkey's foreign policy and the trend toward offensive realism are rooted in the 2011 Arab Spring and subsequent events in the Middle East. The failed coup of 2016 accelerated these changes and pushed them in new directions. Turkey is now seriously aiming to maximize its power, particularly in the politico-military field, which could increase tensions in the sensitive region. We submit that Turkey cannot be guided by offensive realism in the long term, however.

Note From the Editor

“…Our fourth article is entitled “Erdoğan's Endless Dreams: The Theoretical and Operational Framework of Turkey's New Foreign Policy.” In it, Ali Bagheri Dolatabadi and Reza Rezaei (2022) explore critically how Turkey's foreign policy is becoming increasingly ‘offensive realist’ in the MENA in an attempt for the country to posit itself as the new regional leader in the wake of the instability caused by the Arab Spring and the Syrian crisis. Turkey's numerous recent attempts to maximize its power in the region may well increase tensions that Turkey is unlikely to be able to control in the long run.…”