Turkey has begun to take steps toward a more coherent economic policy, but its outcome will ultimately be determined by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
By pledging unconditional support to Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia over Nagorny Karabakh, Turkey’s government is stretching its forces and its budget, but it’s also shoring up its base.
The discovery of hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean has raised tensions in the region. Europe must act to to prevent an actual war from breaking out between Greece and Turkey.
Turkey’s misguided economic policies and slide toward autocracy have exacerbated the country’s relationship with the West. Meanwhile, Ankara’s bipolar foreign policy largely escapes Western leaders and analysts.
The Syrian-Turkish border has also allowed Turkey to play a greater role in Syria, fulfilling Turkish regional ambitions while also generating economic activity ensuring that internally displaced Syrian refugees remain inside Syria.
Faced with no shortage of domestic challenges, Erdogan is expanding Turkey’s role in the Eastern Mediterranean—and antagonizing Europe in turn.
Today’s Turkey is more nationalist and more inclined to assert its political and military power than in recent years. To deal with Ankara, NATO and the EU must be firm, resolute, and yet cooperative.
Turkey’s military intervention in Libya, involving the deployment of Syrian fighters, is the latest chess move in a long-running civil war that followed the 2011 revolution, the NATO-led intervention, and the overthrow of the dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Emmanuel Macron thinks the Atlantic alliance is brain-dead, but its problems have deeper roots than the recent U.S.-Turkish spat over Syria.
Trump’s relations with foreign leaders have followed a consistent pattern. Given the issues that divide the U.S. and Turkey, it’s somewhat of a mystery what Trump thinks he's getting out of his relationship with Erdogan.