The Possibility and Limit of Liberal Middle Power Policies

Book excerpt: This book is a comprehensive analysis of Turkish foreign policy through the concept of “middle power”. The author explores why and how Turkey has constructed middle power identity based on liberal foreign policies, in order to illuminate the change in post-Cold War Turkish state identity in relation to foreign policy behaviors. The author further explores state identity and how changes of circumstances, norms, state self-perception, and the perceptions of others effects that identity. This is done first through a policy analysis of Turgut Özal, Necmettin Erbakan and İsmail Cem and second through an examination of AKP’s foreign policy experiences and ideas, especially in relation to Ahmet Davutoğlu.