This book expands upon transitions in political and societal fabric of Turkey together with its eventual reorientation of foreign policy in broader regional and global contexts during the Justice and Freedom Party era.

The ongoing turbulence in Turkey's domestic and international politics raises a number of crucial questions. What explains the movement toward one-party, and even one-person, rule? What role does Islam play in the ideology and policies of the ruling party and its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan Is the country's long commitment to secular rule a thing of the past - and if so, with what consequences for Turkish society? What is Turkey's likely international role in the Middle East and beyond? These are among the key issues addressed in this comprehensive analysis of the actors and factors driving recent developments in Turkish politics at home and abroad.

Recent years have seen dramatic changes in the nature, direction, and impact of Turkey¿s foreign relations in its neighborhood¿a region that encompasses Europe, the Middle East, the Black and Caspian Seas, and the Caucasus. The authors of this original collection explore those changes, the causes behind them, and their impact on Turkey¿s ties with its traditional allies in the West.

This book explores shifts in Turkey's foreign policy and the relevance of Turkey's reconnect offensive with Asia. With the end of the Cold War, Turkey and the West had lost the mutuality of interests and threat perceptions, particularly towards Russia. Western countries are now occupied by the rise of China and are in search of new allies in the Asia Pacific. Turkey is left in its region to deal with Russia and crises that are primary outcomes of Western failures in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Qatar. In the absence of its Western allies, Turkey engaged with Russia alone to deconflict and stabilise Syria, Libya, and Azerbaijan. Turkey's ruling conservative AK Party, however, had won elections from 2002 to 2012 on a strong pro-EU and pro-West agenda. Now, it is talking about ‘strategic autonomy’, ‘multidimensionalism’, ‘diversification’, or ‘the world is bigger than five’. The new foreign policy gestures are underpinned by the rise of the domestic defence industry, nationalist politics at home, and increased trade relations with key Asian economies, China, India, and Indonesia. At an international level, the ruling party has instrumentalised strong criticism of the West for injustice and neglect of the Turkish, Muslim, Islamic, and non-western world. Although this reminds of the history of Turkey's failed quests to shift from a West-centric foreign policy to an unknown direction, the book argues that Turkey's reconnect with Asia is rather to complement and strengthen its relations with the West.

Turkey is a rising regional and global power facing, as is the United States, the challenges of political transitions in the Middle East, bloodshed in Syria, and Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. As a result, it is incumbent upon the leaders of the United States and Turkey to define a new partnership "in order to make a strategic relationship a reality," says a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)-sponsored Independent Task Force.

This book offers a comparative study of the Central and Eastern European and Turkish economies that analyses the implications of EU enlargement. The contributors discuss issues related to the creation of a legal infrastructure that encourages entrepreneurial initiative, fair competition, market forces and investor confidence. They assess the benefits of following prudent monetary and fiscal policies together with appropriate competition, trade and foreign direct investment policies in Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe.