aliasghar sotoudeh; sayed amir niakoee
Abstract
Foreign policy of the modern Turkey was established on a western orientation signified in its NATO membership. However, the end of the Cold War drastically changed Turkey's security dependencies. Zero problems with neighbors and Strategic Depth policies of Justice and Development Party since its ascent ...
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Foreign policy of the modern Turkey was established on a western orientation signified in its NATO membership. However, the end of the Cold War drastically changed Turkey's security dependencies. Zero problems with neighbors and Strategic Depth policies of Justice and Development Party since its ascent to power were the reactions to these changes. Meanwhile, the security dynamics following the Arab spring and the civil wars in Syria and Iraq drastically changed the security priorities and dependencies of Turkey. In this regard, the present paper explores how the new security dynamics in Middle East, especially civil wars in Syria and Iraq, have affected Turkey's security priorities and dependencies.The findings of the paper illustrate that the new security dynamics have convinced Turkey to shift from Balkan-Turkey security complex to the Middle East security complex. This transition has been formed in two periods. In the first period, new dynamics created many opportunities to increase Turkey's regional role in competition with other regional players, especially Iran. In the second period, the expansion of civil wars in Syria and Iraq increased the dependences of Turkish national security to the Middle East security complex. The Kurdish problem and Islamic fundamentalism arose from the power vacuum in Syria and Iraq have been the most important threats linking Turkey to the security complex of the Middle East. The methodology of the present paper is descriptive-analytical, and the data collection method is based on the library and internet sources.
Sajad Bahrami Moghadam; Ali Asghar Sotoudeh
Abstract
Russia is concerned with the old question of ‘what is Russia?’ Russians’ answers to this question have influenced the country’s foreign policy directions. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the debate over Russia’s identity and its foreign policy goals has escalated .In 1992, the political ...
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Russia is concerned with the old question of ‘what is Russia?’ Russians’ answers to this question have influenced the country’s foreign policy directions. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the debate over Russia’s identity and its foreign policy goals has escalated .In 1992, the political elite that identified itself with liberalism, accompanying Kozyrev, joined Yeltsin in itself efforts to make Russia into a liberal democratic market economy and a willing ally of Western hegemony in the world. The liberals were, however, challenged by Slavists and Eurasianists, and finally fell from power. With the rise of Eurasianists, Russia's foreign policy has been changed. By the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium, a new Russia was emerged that no longer defined itself in Western or Eurasian terms, but instead sees itself as restoring Russia’s “natural” identity. Accordingly, the direction of Russian foreign policy has changed once again. In this article, internal debates over Russia’s national identity and its impact on the country’s foreign policy has been discussed. The question is what the impacts of Russia’s identity layers on its foreign policy are. The hypothesis is that different layers of Russia’s identity, that is, Slavism, Eurasianism, Atlantism as well as the so-called authentic Russian identity, have given rise to different “ought”s in its foreign policy.
