SETA CONFERENCE By  Kim Beng Phar  Visiting Scholar, Waseda University, Organization of Asian Studies / SETA Research Fellow Date: November 15, 2007 Thursday Time: 15.00 - 16.30 Venue: SETA Foundation, Ankara   The Impact and Implication of East Asia as a Global Political Actor: The Risk/Perils of Indifference In, and by Turkey

Güvenlik çalışmaları son yıllarda ülkemizde gelişme eğilimi gösteren bir alandır. Güvenliğin alanı, muhatapları, üretimi ve tüketimi ile ilgili yeni bakış açıları devlet eksenli bir güvenlik anlayışından, insan ve toplum merkezli bir güvenlik yaklaşımına geçişin sınırlarını zorlamaktadır. Bu çalışma, geleneksel güvenlik yaklaşımlarının dışında bir bakış açısı ile hem devletin hem de insanların güvenliğinin beraber sağlanmasının önündeki iki açmazı, güvenlik-demokrasi ve güvenlik istikrar ikilemlerini tartışmaya açıyor. Sadece teorik bir analiz sunmuyor, aynı zamanda Afganistan ve Suriye örneklerinde meseleyi inceliyor. Bu coğrafyalarda yaşanan güvenlik sorunlarının uluslararası dengelerin yanı sıra ülkelerin iç sorunlarından kaynaklandığını ileri süren çalışma, bölgedeki sorunlara bakışta okuyucuya yeni bir perspektif sunuyor. “Güvenliksizlik” ihraç etmekle itham edilen bu ülkelerdeki sorunun “kendi evlerine çeki düzen” verme sorunuyla ilintili olduğu alanda yapılan çalışmalarla desteklenerek açıklanıyor.

Since September 11, 2001, America's foreign policy and the future of the global system have occupied a central place in current international affairs debates. The neocon arguments became increasingly influential during the last years of the Clinton administration and found resonance in the Bush administration. In the aftermath of the 9/11 events, both the ideological arguments and the excuses were in place for the realization of the neocon project. This period witnessed the deterioration of already weakened international institutions and the "global order." The end results were, among other things, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the tacit support for the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza. The overall political cost of all these policies was roundly criticized by many and analyzed as the paramount example of American "unilateralism."

The activism of late observed in Turkish foreign policy demonstrates a clear preference for a regional approach to international relations. It has been almost a mantra for Turkey’s new foreign policy elite to promote regional actors’ ownership of economic and security affairs in their own neighborhood. Various such initiatives that Turkey has been spearheading recently in its adjacent regions, including the Middle East, Caucasus, Balkans and beyond, underscore Turkey’s emergence as a regional power willing and able to assume leadership roles in those regions. Turkey has been pursuing customs and visa liberalization with many of its neighbors, while initiating strategic cooperation councils with others. Similar to Turkey’s initiation of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in the 1990s, Turkey has also launched a Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform. Complementing these efforts are various other bilateral or trilateral processes under its patronage, such as the ones between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, or between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Conspiracy theories are instruments of creative thinking. Yet, there is a huge difference between creative thinking and insisting on selective facts that only align with a theory.

The wave of uprisings that spread through North Africa, and the Middle East have brought our region to an interesting junction in terms of the proxy wars.

The world and Turkey, especially within the last five years, have experienced head-spinning events. In fact, the turbulent environment of the last five years does not indicate anything but an even more difficult year ahead.

The worry is not about the possibility of a war breaking out; it is about the hope of building a new regional order in the near future fading away.

The United States that had actualized the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe at the end of the Second World War, today, with the Marshall Islands vote, trapped the Middle Eastern politics between a political rock and a hard place.

It is possible to say that the Mohammed Morsi government in Egypt is about to end. However, a power struggle in which the Muslim Brotherhood is to play the leading actor of the political future of the country has just begun.

The debate on the role and influence of the BRICS in global politics are increasing every day. However, what is lacking in this debate is that the focus is always on economic level.

One of the most severe pains of the 21st century will be the dissolution of the status quo in the Middle East which presented a luxurious world of geopolitics to the West and to those who kept guard of the regional order on behalf of the West throughout the 20th century.

Kılıç Buğra Kanat: A possible U.S. intervention will not end the civil war. However, in a more optimistic look, it is possible to expect that the strike will seriously damage Assad’s conventional forces and give opposition groups serious advantages.

No matter which method is chosen for Syria, it will be neither rational nor realistic to expect a miraculous solution for the Syrian crisis.

The US cannot overcome the fear, concerns and hesitations provoked by these specters and conduct a serious Syria-related discussion despite the humanitarian drama in Syria.

The disagreement between Turkey and the US on the Syrian issue and the coup d’état in Egypt are contributing factors to increased criticism of Turkey in Washington.

An agreement that included almost all of the terms in the recent deal had been signed among Turkey, Brazil and Iran in 2010.