This election analysis wiill focus on the June election results, the coalition formation process that failed in the period after the elections and variables that will influence the voting behavior of the Turkish electorates in the upcoming elections.

While no big surprises are expected from the local elections, the perception of success or failure of the ruling party will have an impact on its calculations with respect to the presidential election and the parliamentary election in 2015.

Which approach has shaped Iran’s understanding of foreign policy after the Revolution? What are the basic approaches to Iran’s “interest-based” foreign policy?

For how long will the perpetrators behind the killings in Syria be left to the conscience of real politics instead of international law as it was the case in the Bosnian War?

It is argued in the analysis that the UN is far from playing an effective and consistent role in the globalizing international order and this is the main reason behind decreasing reliability and prestige of the UN in the eyes of the international society.

This analysis offers a general assessment of Turkey’s relations with the Balkans under the AK Party government.

Extrication of the Turkish-Israeli relationship from the US-Turkey relationship represented a structural change.

By creating restricted political openings, as was the case in the early 1990s, the king intended to coopt some opposition parties, which had been previously excluded from the political system.

The Arab uprisings in early 2011 provided the US and Turkey with an opportunity and a necessity to discover new forms of cooperation and policy coordination due to the urgency for action on the ground.

The “New Egypt” will be shaped to a great extent by a “negotiation” process between the army and the political actors in opposition. It is likely that Egypt’s transition to democracy will be a long and difficult process.

Turkey’s foreign policy and the Arab Spring turned out to be as important in determining the political agenda for 2011 as the June 12 elections. Turkey’s role in the spreading political movements from North Africa to the Middle East surpassed its previous involvement in the area.

Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish issue was also mentioned in the commentaries as a major issue that awaited a comprehensive solution.

The study of the September 2010 constitutional referendum results revealed significant clues as to what could be the results of the June 2011 general elections.

The world’s economics in 2010 were still struggling to overcome the financial crisis, which began in 2008 in the United States and became global in 2009.

SETA D.C. PANEL   Moderator:     Kadir Üstün     Doctoral Candidate at Columbia University   Speakers:     Taha Özhan     Director-General of the SETA Foundation     Ömer Taşpınar     Brookings Institution Date: December 9, 2009   Venue: SETA D.C. 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite #1106 Washington, D.C.