Competitive Multipolarity in the Middle East and the Transformation of Turkey’s Regional Policies in the 2000s and 2010s
The paper aims to decode the logic in the revisions of Turkey’s regional policies during the 2000s and 2010s in respect to a wider context of the large-scale transformations in the Middle East and North Africa region. Methodologically the paper utilizes the concept of competitive multipolarity which...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Moscow University Press
2020-11-01
|
| Series: | Вестник Московского Университета. Серия XXV: Международные отношения и мировая политика |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://fmp.elpub.ru/jour/article/view/14 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | The paper aims to decode the logic in the revisions of Turkey’s regional policies during the 2000s and 2010s in respect to a wider context of the large-scale transformations in the Middle East and North Africa region. Methodologically the paper utilizes the concept of competitive multipolarity which allows to scrutinize the simultaneous manifestation, mutual entwinement and substantial opposition of the key trends in the development of the Middle East during the period under review. Against this background the paper examines the transformation processes in the Middle East on three interconnected levels — the global one, which reflects the alternations in the balance of power and the involvement patterns of the Global Powers in the Middle Eastern affairs; the regional one, which encompasses the relations between the main regional states; and the state level which allows to scrutinize the tangle interconnections between domestic and foreign policy imperatives of a particular Middle Eastern country. This analytical approach allowed to spotlight how both the relative decline of the American influence in the Middle East and the limited involvement in the regional developments of the EU, China and Russia contributed to the rising competitive interplay of the leading regional states with the regional leadership aspirations — namely Turkey, Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia. However, this multipolarity did not result in a sustainable balance of power in the region because the acute competitive activity of the above mentioned regional powers has primarily focused on the states in deep political crisis or the ones which are almost failed states. In this respect the case of Turkey is of a special interest for the following reasons. Ankara’s foreign policy in the 2000s and 2010s experienced large-scale transformations and pervasive changes. Partly abandoning its previous posture of a state deeply integrated in the Trans-Atlantic international relations and largely subordinated to the logic of these interrelations Turkey actively joined the struggle for the regional influence in the 2000s. Turkey’s impressive economic growth and a wide popular support both domestically and abroad facilitated the rise of Ankara’s foreign policy activities. The sound successes of Turkish business together with the large-scale internationalization of the Turkish capital have become the main drivers for Turkey’s expansion in the Middle East and North Africa. Initially other regional actors perceived the increasing role of Turkey in the regional affairs more or less favorably. However, the end of the 2010s witnessed a number of international contradictions as a result of Turkey’s rising ambitions for regional hegemony. Consequently, Turkey now is turning out to become yet another regional power which is amplifying rather than smoothing away the destructive competitiveness of the Middle Eastern multipolarity. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2076-7404 |