Turkey is realising that a soft power-based foreign policy was successful and gave returns with minimum risks only when the region was stable. With the Middle East going through a political transformation, Turkey will have to invent new strategies to remain relevant and continue its rise a regional power.
As we move into the second winter of the Arab Spring, this Issue Brief attempts to take stock of the progress of the Arab Spring and examine whether the aspirations of people have been met or have they been handed a raw deal.
Just when it seemed that the Arab Spring was almost over and the region was entering a phase of political transition, a flurry of developments in the first week of October 2012 has brought the region back into focus.
Though the NAM Summit was an important occasion for Iran to showcase its diplomatic acceptability, its impact on the future contours of the Iranian nuclear imbroglio will likely be minimal.
It is hoped that regrettable as the murder of Ambassador Stevens is, those in authority in Washington might be persuaded to do their ‘sums’ once again and take a second look.
Iran, Israel and Turkey have adopted a two pronged approach to deal with the Arab Spring: avoid the negative consequences of the uprisings while at the same time deriving mileage to further their interests in an uncertain neighbourhood.
The two recent malware attacks on energy companies in West Asia are particularly worrisome since they represent a rapid escalation in capabilities and intent on the part of the perpetrators.
The ongoing global financial crisis has had an increasing strain on the defence budgets of different European countries. In the case of France, an intelligent and anticipatory/ preventive planning has mitigated the effects of the crisis but challenges remain, which have to be taken seriously and addressed effectively, if France wants to maintain its strategic autonomy.
This Backgrounder focuses on recent events in the West African Sahel, and highlights emerging security issues against the background of events following the Libyan revolution.
The WMD insinuation by the West, the debate over the impending genocide in Aleppo, and the swelling ranks of refugees, all point to an orchestrated shift in the narrative of the conflict that makes external intervention an ‘inevitability’.
Is Turkey’s Foreign Policy of “Zero Problems with Neighbours” Coming Apart? A Critical Appraisal
Turkey is realising that a soft power-based foreign policy was successful and gave returns with minimum risks only when the region was stable. With the Middle East going through a political transformation, Turkey will have to invent new strategies to remain relevant and continue its rise a regional power.