Only time will tell whether a desire for such change will emerge in the political in Iran, and if it does, whether it will be achieved. Similarly, the answer to the question “Does the West prefer a normalized Iran in the region” is yet to become clear.

Following the use of chemical weapons by Bashar al Assad, who has violated all the red lines in international politics, the US and others have started to discuss a possible military intervention in Syria, but this is mostly because they have concerns about maintaining the legitimacy of the international system.

The AK Party decade in Turkish foreign policy has been an age of change and transformation.

Although Assad and the apparatus of security that surrounded him managed to survive, their obstinacy left Syria in ruins.

If Turkey’s CHP believes that they are up to the task of running the country, the Syrian crisis may serve as a great opportunity to convince the still doubtful voters.

In the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, the strategy that regional forces adopt will determine the future of the occupation in Iraq.

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.

Recent Arab revolutions have brought both opportunities and challenges to Turkish foreign policy. 

The profound transformation in the priorities of Turkey’s foreign policy and macroeconomic strategy should be read in view of tectonic shifts in the world system...

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.

Turkey’s rapid transition from a buffer state position to a pro-active and multi-dimensional diplomatic activism has led to ambiguities on the aim, intention and realism of the recent Turkish foreign policy.

Al-Jazeera invited almost a dozen Turkish scholars and journalists to its Fourth Annual Forum last month in Doha. It was the first time so many Turkish participants attended. Why did al-Jazeera invite so many Turks to an event focused on the Arab world? More generally, why do people in the Middle East pay attention to Turkish perspectives on their affairs?

In a rather unprecedented cry of outrage, Prince Turki al-Faisal, one of the most prominent figures of the Saudi state, put it bluntly: If the US under the new Obama administration does not change its policy toward Israel and Palestine, the Saudis will no longer maintain their “special relationship” with the US (“Saudi Arabia’s patience is running out,” Financial Times, Jan. 23, 2009). Quoting from the Saudi king that his peace plan, called “the Arab peace initiative,” is still on the table, the prince added that “it would not remain there for long.” 

With the appointment of Yusuf Ziya Özcan as the new president of Turkey’s Higher Education Board (YÖK), there is renewed hope for the future of the Turkish university system. For too long Turkish universities have performed way below acceptable international standards. Nor have they catered to the increasing needs of Turkish society. Instead of improving the standards of higher education in Turkey, YÖK has acted like an academic police controlling everything in the universities.

The excitement Turkey generates in the Arab world and beyond (the Balkans, Europe and parts of Africa can easily be added to the list) seems to be sustained by the confluence of substantial changes in three areas: Turkey, the region and the world.

Everybody from Ankara to Brussels is asking the question “With the Justice and Devlopment Party (AK Party) strengthening its position in government and Abdullah Gül as the new president, will Turkey renew its efforts to join the EU as a full member?” No matter how the AK Party and the Turkish people answer the question, much still depends on what happens next in Europe.