The new wave of foreign policy activism in Turkey

DIIS Report (Danish Institute for International Studies), January, 2009

Ziya Öniş *

Currently, the prospects for Turkey’s EU membership do not look very bright. With key chapters for negotiation already suspended, the government is likely to resume a loose Europeanization agenda. The counterpart of this in the foreign-policy realm is an approach based on ‘soft Euro-asianism’. An attempt is also being made to develop friendly relationships with all neighboring countries, coupled with a mediating role in regional conflicts, but without the EU providing the main axis for foreign policy.

The present report investigates the continuities and ruptures in Turkish foreign policy during the post-2002 AKP era. It attempts to identify the underlying reasons for the decline in enthusiasm for EU membership following the golden age of Europeanization and reforms during the early years of the AKP government. The report also points to internal and external political developments which may help to reverse the current drift away from Europeanization.

Ziya Öniş, The new wave of foreign policy activism in Turkey: drifting away from europeanization ?, DIIS Report 2009:05, January, 2009, 39 p., ISBN 978-87-7605-303-1

* Ziya Öniş is Professor of International Political Economy and Director of the Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. Previously, he was Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. Önis has been a Visiting Fulbright Fellow at Princeton University and has participated in World Bank and OECD Development Centre projects. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of International Trade and Diplomacy and his articles have appeared in numerous international publications. Önis is the author of State and Market: The Political Economy of Turkey in Comparative Perspective (Boğaziçi University, 1998), co-author of Economic Crisis and Long-term Growth in Turkey (World Bank, 1993) and Turkish Politics in a Changing World: Global Dynamics and Domestic Transformations (Istanbul Bilgi University, 2007), and co-editor of The Turkish Economy in Crisis (Routledge, 2003).

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