Opportunity Found: Exploring the Success and Prospect of the Turkey-Africa Cooperation

Abstract

Ankara views the breakdown of accession talks with the European Union as a fracture of its ambivalent perspective and its distrust of Western powers. As a result, it is reorienting itself toward Africa as an option within the anarchic structure of the international system to realize its regional and global ambitions. This research article argues that the shift in power dynamics in the international system from a realist framework and the increasing role of domestic structural factors and actors as part of the normative underpinnings of a liberal framework explain Turkey-Africa cooperation. The author examines the success and potential of this cooperation and concludes that the Turkey-Africa opening is undoubtedly mutually beneficial if strengthened. It also potentially positions Turkey as an effective Western ally in a potential East-West rivalry.