Müjge Küçükkeleş

American military bases, long identified with US interests, have always been a controversial subject among scholars. A significant increase in the number of military bases possessed by the United States around the world following World War Two is striking to observe. Many different arguments have been developed to try to understand the dynamics and motives behind the establishment of such a great number of these bases, the most commonly held one is that these military bases serve the strategic and geopolitical interests of the United States. But don’t they also help expand the US’s sphere of ideological influence?

This article examines how the European elite views new parameters of Turkey’s increasing activism in the Middle East with special emphasis on county’s role in the Middle East in the context of claims of shift of axis on ideological grounds and Turkey’s relations with the EU, Iran and Israel. It is demonstrated the emerging European perception among policy analysts and scholars regarding Turkish foreign policy is generally positive, and recent changes do not mean a shift in country’s foreign policy orientation. Turkey is still perceived to be part of the Western alliance, but it is now seen more confident in taking initiatives and more eager to develop a regional approach.

Lately, the search for the revival of a European spirit to respond to the continent’s pervasive crises in economic, social, cultural, and political spheres has been the subject of many books and articles. This search has brought forth several different approaches, along with heated debates, as to how this resurgence in the first decade of the 21st century could be crystallized and projected into the future. Imagine Europe: The Search for European Identity and Spirituality, edited by Luk Bouckaert and Jochanan Eynikel sets out to keep track on these debates and delve into the question of the identity crisis besieging Europe.