Turkey’s foreign policy implementation continues to cause confusion. Most of Ankara’s allies are particularly concerned about the coordination between Turkey and Russia, questioning whether Turkey is drifting away from its commitments to the Trans-Atlantic security and its allegiance to NATO.
January 2018 marks the end of Donald Trump’s first year in office as the president of the United States. In the course of this year, he declared that the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Negotiations with the European Union on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have been suspended and China has been identified as a major challenge to the American economy.
Turkey’s intervention in Syria’s Afrin has opened a new chapter in the Syrian problem.
The post-second World War order of bipolarity has definitely collapsed after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It has been argued that this event also marked the end of Cold War, too. Today’s post-Cold War environment, however, gives the appearance that it is still unsettled and will probably continue to be so for some foreseeable time.
At a time when Turkey’s relations with Europe are believed to be at the lowest level, the visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to France gives hope that there is a new opportunity to reverse this trend. Will 2018 give us the chance to reset relations between Turkey and Europe?
2018 is the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, and history obliges us to focus on the merits of peace in ensuring security and stability all over the world. Turkey’s contribution to world peace and security in its role as a potentially important regional actor cannot be neglected. It is therefore necessary to define a visionary foreign policy: In a nutshell, the parameters of such a vision could be identified in five key principles.
European politics are entering a new era of young leaders.
2018 is likely to present new, complex and complicated foreign policy challenges for Turkey. This does not only relate to the Middle East, where Turkey claims to “build order,” but it also pertains to its relations with the West where it is supposed to be a part of the order
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is likely to set the Middle East ablaze again.
