| Turkey's Transformers
Abramowitz, Morton; Barkey, Henri J.
Foreign Affairs, November/December 2009, v88, #6, pp118-129
"In recent years, Turkey has earned kudos from the international community for its economic dynamism, its energetic and confident diplomacy, and its attempts to confront some of its deepest foreign policy problems, such as in northern Iraq and Cyprus. These days, as always, daunting domestic issues are bedeviling Turkey's progress. Increasingly polarized views about the leadership of the ruling Justice and Development Party (known as the AKP) have undermined the government's ability to spearhead profound political change. Meanwhile, the increasing independence of Turkey's foreign policy is reinforced by the population's nativism. A recent poll by a Turkish university showed the Turks' deep mistrust and dislike of foreigners, especially their country's closest allies, the Americans and the Europeans. Turkey has problems with the EU, too, partly because of the distance between the EU'S and Turkey's conceptions of liberal democracy. Without a successful reform effort, Turkey will continue to be just an aspirant to grandeur."
Morton Abramowitz is a Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation and was U.S. Ambassador to Turkey in 1989-91. Henry J. Barney is a nonresident Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Professor of International Relations at Lehigh University.
Go to the
article (via Proquest)
Password required
A45/05-09. Posted December 7, 2009
|
