The transformation of Turkey’s political economy over the last decade has attracted the attention of many analysts. Parallel to its extensive domestic transformation, activism in Turkish foreign policy has also brought about new research topics, contentious issues of discussion, and challenges.

Turkey’s philosophy of proactive and pre-emptive foreign policy, which substituted Turkey’s non-interventionist and pro-status quo approach with its neighbors, corresponds to the “demand for a new status,” in the words of some scholars.¹ Foreign policy makers, most notably Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, have openly expressed their dissatisfaction regarding Turkey’s role in the past in its relations with neighbors...

Discussions regarding the concepts of “power” and “regional power” have a determinant significance in measuring the foreign policy activities of states.

In political science and international relations “power” constitutes one of the central concepts. How the framework of the concept is drawn and more importantly how it is made the variable of an empirical analysis, however, is a topic of intensive methodological and theoretical discussions.⁷ This study examines the concept of power in three categories concerning the emphases on its different aspects in the literature.⁸

It is possible to examine the first dimension of power within the framework of a...

Discussions regarding the concepts of “power” and “regional power” are of significant importance in terms of measuring states’ foreign policy activities.

Recently, there have been many discussions concerning Turkey being an inspiration to the Arab world. According to many experts, Turkey has gained the courtesy of peoples of the region by “being an actor who is only living” what and how things should be done rather than dictating them. What is more, it could do this as an actor who also managed to expand its relations with the West. Likewise, Turkey has a unique foreign policy characteristic as a member...

In this study, discussions on Turkey’s capacity and recently-increasing foreign policy activism are attempted to be empirically analyzed.

The “central country” or “order-establishing actor” role claimed by Turkey in the Middle East is attempted to be analytically examined with reference to power discussions in relevant literature and by operationalizing variables used in “regional power” discussions. In this context, it is possible to reach three main conclusions. First of all, although the main question in current debates concerns Turkey’s power potential, it is seen that there is no comprehensive research based on data on this issue. In other words, Turkish international...