The Cairo Review Interview: Strategic Thinking

The Cairo Review of Global Affairs (AUC) 4/2012, Winter 2012                Türkçe

Scott MacLeod

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu explains the Turkish Republic’s place in the world.

Having won a parliamentary seat last year to represent his hometown of Konya, Ahmet Davutoğlu can now call himself a politician. To most Turks, he will always be the cerebral professor of political theory, the architect of a dynamic, outward-looking foreign policy that has transformed Turkey into a regional powerhouse.

After earning a PhD in political science and international relations at Bosporus University, Davutoğlu went on to teach at the International Islamic University of Malaysia, Marmara University, and Beykent University. Fluent in English, German, and Arabic, he caught the imagination of Turkish leaders as the author of books on geopolitics, including Strategic Depth; The Global Crisis; Civilizational Transformation and the Muslim World; and Alternative Paradigms: The Impact of Islamic and Western Weltanschauungs on Political Theory.

Following the victory in 2002 of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Davutoğlu, the grandson of a shoemaker, became special advisor to the prime minister and ambassador-at-large, and was appointed foreign minister in 2009. In those capacities he has proved a dizzyingly active, always principled, often effective diplomat. He has visited Syria as an envoy sixty-two times. In 2010, he stitched together the Tehran Joint Declaration, a Turkish-Brazilian effort to negotiate a way out of the dangerous international impasse over Iran’s nuclear program. His instinctive backing of the Arab Spring, and staunch support for Palestinian rights, has enabled Ankara to expand its influence throughout the Middle East. Despite serious tensions with Israel, he has helped keep Turkish relations with the U.S. in good form. His combination of vision and skill has impressed the world; he made Foreign Policy magazine’s list of ‘100 Top Global Thinkers’ for 2010 and 2011. Davutoğlu responded in writing on March 7 to questions from the Cairo Review.

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