Insight Turkey
Insight Turkey
Challenging ideas
On Turkish politics and International affairs

Turkey s Education Policy During the AK Party Era 2002-2013

Turkey’s Education Policy During the AK Party Era (2002-2013)

The AK Party has been a leading reform actor with particular emphasis on education. AK Party governments implemented educational reforms to...

After Gezi Moving Towards Post-Hegemonic Imagination in Turkey

After Gezi: Moving Towards Post-Hegemonic Imagination in Turkey

his paper discusses the conflict between the AK Party government and the Gezi activism with reference to hegemony, power-resistance dichotomy,...

Kyrgyzstan In Search for Stability

Kyrgyzstan: In Search for Stability

In the last two decades, Kyrgyzstan has searched for stability while swinging on a pendulum between democratic reforms and suppression of...

Just Another BRIC in the Wall A Comparison of Recent

Just Another BRIC in the Wall? A Comparison of Recent Brazilian and Turkish Economic Developments

This paper compares various macro-prudential and policy tools, set against various aspects of the countries’ recent political economies, used by...

Reality or Mirage BRICS and the Making of Multipolarity in

Reality or Mirage?: BRICS and the Making of Multipolarity in the Global Political Economy

The international system embarked on a process of transformation to a more heterogeneous configuration and debates of multipolarity acquired...

A Country on a Tightrope The Economic Crisis and the

A Country on a Tightrope: The Economic Crisis and the End of an Era in Spanish Politics

This commentary tries to study the current socio-economic crisis in Spain and the end of the political era which began with transition to democracy...

The Effect of New Turkish Foreign Policy on International Trade

The Effect of New Turkish Foreign Policy on International Trade

Turkish foreign policy has changed substantially within the last decade. Even though its relationship with the West still has significance,...

European Union and Turkey in the Post Arab Spring Era

European Union and Turkey in the Post Arab Spring Era: Mapping Strategic Interests in the Turbulent Neighborhood

This article explores the strategic importance Turkey holds to the European Union and how Ankara could contribute to the EU’s achieving the status...

How and Why the West Reacted to the Arab Spring

How and Why the West Reacted to the Arab Spring: An Arab Perspective

For many decades, the Arab despots would serve the Western interests in the region in return for a Western disregard to democracy policies in their...

Deconstructing the Discourse of Models The Battle of Ideas over

Deconstructing the Discourse of Models: The ‘Battle of Ideas’ over the Post-Revolutionary Middle East

Since the beginning of the Arab Spring, the so-called ‘Turkish model’ has become a key ingredient of the discourse of democratization in the Middle...

Re-Imagining the Ottoman Past in Turkish Politics Past and Present

Re-Imagining the Ottoman Past in Turkish Politics: Past and Present

The article analyses the use of Ottoman past as a central theme in Turkish politics since the 1960s. It discusses how the revivalist discourse...

Prospects for Resolution of the Kurdish Question A Realist Perspective

Prospects for Resolution of the Kurdish Question: A Realist Perspective

The developments in early 2013 generated expectations that the almost three decades old armed conflict between the Turkish state and PKK would...

Identity Narrative and Frames Assessing Turkey s Kurdish Initiatives

Identity, Narrative and Frames: Assessing Turkey’s Kurdish Initiatives

In 2009 the Turkish government launched a novel initiative to tackle the Kurdish question. The initiative soon ran into deadlock, only to be...

Sharing Power Turkey s Democratization Challenge in the Age of

Sharing Power: Turkey’s Democratization Challenge in the Age of the AKP Hegemony

After a major wave of democratization over the last decade, the stalemate in Turkey’s reform process and the rising concerns about ‘creeping...

The AK Party and the Evolution of Turkish Political Islam

The AK Party and the Evolution of Turkish Political Islam’s Foreign Policy

Turkish foreign policy under the AK Party government has long drawn scrutiny from a wide range of analysts. The Syrian uprising has raised the...

Islam Conservatism and Democracy in Turkey Comparing Turgut Özal and

Islam, Conservatism, and Democracy in Turkey: Comparing Turgut Özal and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

In the absence of a politically influential aristocracy and the entrepreneurial middle class, the political and economic transformations in...

Egypt s Democratic Experiment Challenges to a Positive Trajectory

Egypt’s Democratic Experiment: Challenges to a Positive Trajectory

As Egypt charts a path to democracy, it confronts the legacy of 60 years of dictatorship. President Morsi faces an ongoing power struggle with...

The Limits of Norm Promotion The EU in Egypt and

The Limits of Norm Promotion: The EU in Egypt and Israel/Palestine

Policy implications aside, assessing the EU’s involvement in the Mediterranean region necessitates a reconsideration of the impact and limits of...

The Arab Uprisings Two Years On Ideology Sectarianism and the

The Arab Uprisings Two Years On: Ideology, Sectarianism and the Changing Balance of Power in the Middle East

This paper traces the changes to the domestic politics of Arab states following the 2011 uprisings and places them in a continuum depending on the...

Understanding the AK Party s Identity Politics A Civilizational Discourse

Understanding the AK Party’s Identity Politics: A Civilizational Discourse and its Limitations

The AK Party seeks to respond to four challenges stemming from three confrontations (Islamism, Kemalism, and regional balance of power) that are...

The Ends of Islamism Rethinking the Meaning of Islam and

The “Ends” of Islamism: Rethinking the Meaning of Islam and the Political

There have been almost regular attempts to declare the “end of Islamism” or “the end of political Islam.” Since the late 1980s, many observers have...

European Views of Turkish Foreign Policy

European Views of Turkish Foreign Policy

This article examines how the European elite views new parameters of Turkey’s increasing activism in the Middle East with special emphasis on...

The Southern Gas Corridor and Turkey s Role as an

The Southern Gas Corridor and Turkey’s Role as an Energy Transit State and Energy Hub

With decisions about to be made on major pipeline projects, Turkey could become a vital component of the so-called southern gas corridor. Turkey is...

Fishing for Gas and More in Cypriot Waters

Fishing for Gas and More in Cypriot Waters

Cyprus has been hit hard by economic misfortunes recently, but now has a big opportunity to develop significant offshore gas resources. However,...

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