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Turkey’s rejuvenated foreign policy activism firmly constructed 

on novel conceptual parameters, such as “strategic depth,” “zero 

problems  with  neighbours,”  “maximum  cooperation”  and  “bal-

ance between security and freedom”, attracted ever-increasing 

academic and popular attention over the course of the last de-

cade. By now, a substantial reservoir of literature has emerged, 

assessing the profound transformation of Turkish foreign policy 

from different angles under the leadership of Ahmet Davutoğlu, 

Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Depending on their respec-

tive ideational/ideological standing, various experts dubbed the

proactive, multidimensional and order-creating tendencies of the 

new foreign policy attitude as a sign of “Turkey’s rising star” as 

a regional and even global power; or an indication of carefully 

camouflaged  “neo-Ottomanism”  associated  with  an  “axis  shift”

towards the Muslim world.

Likewise, Turkey’s singular experiment, since the 1980s, with

the first and second-generation models of neoliberalism has 

shaped the country’s transition from an inward-looking import-substitution-cum-planning regime 

to an export-oriented open economy. This experience has also triggered the accumulation of a com-

prehensive collection of writings evaluating various aspects of ongoing structural transformation. 

Academics and experts with a more liberal economic orientation and the IMF-led Bretton Woods

circles praised Turkey’s early performance as “a textbook example of successful liberalization,” while

relatively left-leaning authors warned against the fragile institutional foundations, weak regulatory-

monitoring mechanisms, and insufficient social safeguards embedded in the Turkish model. How-

ever, Turkey’s post-2001 economic performance characterized by a series of regulatory reforms that 

strengthened oversight on public finance and the financial sector, robust growth dynamics, and re-

INSIGHT TURKEY

Turkey and America: Still Allies? 

Political Economy of Turkish 

Foreign Policy

 

Politics of Trade and Integration

GUEST EDITORS: SADIK ÜNAY & ERDAL TANAS KARAGÖL

insight turkey volume 13 number 1

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silience to external shocks attracted the attention

of international investors to this “emerging mar-

ket” and drew widespread praise from the ma-

jority of economic observers. 

Partly as a result of the resilience of rigid disci-

plinary boundaries between political science and 

international relations, and economics and de-

velopment studies, and partly due to the tenden-

cies of independent observers to use supportive 

material from their specific area of interest, a 

clear vacuum in the literature appeared con-

cerning critical interfaces and linkages between 

Turkish foreign policy and macroeconomic de-

velopments. This special issue of Insight Turkey 

aims to kick-start interdisciplinary studies that 

could contribute to the filling of that vacuum. 

By mainly adopting an international political 

economy (IPE) perspective, this special issue on

the “Political Economy of Turkish Foreign Policy” 

brings together a provocative collection of ar-

ticles written by political scientists, international 

relations experts, and economists exploring the

economic underpinnings and repercussions of 

the “new Turkish foreign policy.” 

To this end, articles in this issue cover the 

profound developments witnessed in the global 

political economy and particularly Turkey’s re-

gional environment in the last decade; identify 

the foremost economic consequences of Turkey’s 

multidimensional foreign policy; probe into the 

objective  validity  of  the  “axis  shift”  arguments

in terms of international trade patterns by ana-

lyzing Turkey’s trade over time with her neigh-

bours, the EU countries and the Islamic world;

and assess the particular role of main economic 

actors, conglomerates and business associations 

in the formulation and implementation of Turk-

ish foreign policy. In doing that, this issue of In-

sight Turkey aims to provide an arguably more 

“objective” reading of ongoing transformations 

in Turkey’s foreign policy orientation and global 

positioning in the light of concrete figures and 

performance outcomes, rather than political/ 

ideological discourses. 

As far as the overall conclusions which could 

be drawn from the articles presented in this 

special  issue  of  Insight  Turkey  are  concerned,

perhaps the first and foremost is a categorical re-

jection of reductionist and crude categorizations 

compressed under the rubric of the “axis shift”

debate. Widespread evidence from international 

trade and foreign economic relations confirm 

that there is absolutely no concrete basis to justify 

the proposition that Turkey is moving away from 

its traditional Western-orientation and realizing 

a systematic policy of integration with her east-

ern/Islamic neighbours. On the contrary, there is

strong evidence confirming Turkey’s enthusiasm 

to increase her economic interdependence with 

the neighbouring countries in respective of their 

cultural/religious affiliation, and realize new 

openings in relatively unexplored markets in Af-

rica, Latin America, and East Asia to strengthen

her newly adopted role as a regional power and 

global broker. 

The second conclusion concerns the systemic 

shift in the “epicentre of the global political econ-

omy” from the Euro-Atlantic axis to the East and

South Asian heartland led by China, India, and

Russia closely followed by a group of emerging

markets, which incidentally include Turkey. The 

profound transformation in the priorities of Tur-

key’s foreign policy and macroeconomic strategy 

should be read in view of tectonic shifts in the 

world system and dynamic responses given to 

them, rather than ideological precepts and un-

warranted assumptions about the true inten-

sions of leading political actors. 

insight turkey volume 13 number 1

WINTER 2011 

F. Stephen Larrabee

 The ‘New Turkey’ and American-Turkish Relations / 

Ömer Taşpınar

 The Rise of Turkish Gaullism / 

Nuh Yılmaz

 Model Partnership as an ‘Empty Sig-

nifier’ / 

David L. Wiltse 

The Congressional Elections 2010 and Turkish Interests in the Congress 

/

 İbrahim Turhan and Zübeyir Kılınç 

Turkey’s Response to the Global Economic Crisis / 

Ziya 

Öniş

 Multiple Faces of the “New” Turkish Foreign Policy /

 Mustafa Kutlay 

Economy as the 

‘Practical Hand’ of ‘New Turkish Foreign Policy’ / 

Kadri Kaan Renda 

Turkey’s Neighborhood 

Policy: An Emerging Complex Interdependence? / 

Altay Atlı 

Businessmen as Diplomats / 

Meh-

met Babacan 

Whither an Axis Shift: A Perspective from Turkey’s Foreign Trade / 

Birol Başkan

 

Turkey-GCC Relations: Is There A Future? / 

Sadık Ünay

 Global Transformations and the MENA

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