International focus has been on the Middle East for decades and particularly on Iran, Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Libya over the past several years. However, whatever is written about the Middle East, Russia is always part of the equation.

Andrej Kreutz raised a poignant question in his book from 2007, "Russia in the Middle East: Friend or Foe," well before the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011. Even though Russia has been an important player in the Middle East since the Cold War era, its influence in the region has burgeoned since Syrian President Bashar Assad invited Moscow into the Syrian civil war in 2015.

After President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's meeting with key leaders in the Libyan crisis, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Turkey has come to the fore once again as a game changer in Middle Eastern politics. Turkey's diplomatic efforts produced a cease-fire at a time when Tripoli was about to fall into the hands of Gen. Khalifa Haftar. Turkey has mobilized many regional and global actors such as Algeria, Tunisia, Italy and Germany to take more initiative in the Libyan crisis.

Sallust, a Roman historian and a contemporary of Julius Ceasar was popularized in writings on contemporary international relations after the end of the Cold War. Those who connect the works and writings by him to the evolving international order mostly used the concept of "metus hostilis," the fear of an enemy. Sallust in his writings stated that a lack of common enemy can be detrimental for the unity and integrity of the state. According to him, the destruction of Rome's rival Carthage brought significant domestic discord for Rome.

U.S. President Donald Trump's use of Twitter has generated a lot of debate since his inauguration. For some, it was an effective use of social media and a way to circumvent the mainstream media to reach his voters and sympathizers directly; however, especially when it comes to foreign policy, it has become a more controversial way of public outreach for a statesman that can complicate the already hectic decision-making mechanism.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump has contributed positively to bilateral relations. Their commitment to working together and continue negotiations was one of the meeting's concrete outcomes.

Turkey initiated a large-scale Westernization project immediately after the declaration of the Republic. It had decided to follow the footsteps of the enemy it had fought during World War I and the Independence War. It introduced many political, economic, even social and cultural reforms during the first two decades of the interwar period. In the wake of World War II, the Soviet threat further paved the way for Turkey's alliance with the West.

U.S. governments have been questioning the contribution of the NATO alliance for the last two decades. Although the U.S. pioneered the enlargement of the alliance, it mostly prefers to act unilaterally in its security policy, which creates problems for NATO.

Its geographic location as a bridge between East and West and its geopolitical significance made Turkey, particularly Istanbul, attractive for Bond movies. During the Cold War, as one of the most critical cities that absorbed the stress and tension of the rivalry between the Soviet Union and the U.S., the backdrop of Istanbul made the jobs of the producers of the popular culture films easier. This status of Istanbul continued following the end of the Cold War.

Spies in Western movies are always overconfident, representing Western power. However, in the case of Johnny English, a man of errors who is always saved by his friends, it is the opposite and more closely resembles the Western world as we know it

Experts assess Turkey's NATO membership on 67th anniversary of military alliance

As the international system changes and rising powers challenge U.S. predominance around the world, the direction of Washington's foreign policy will be extremely important in shaping future geopolitics

Although not many people consider an armed confrontation between superpowers to be likely today, nobody is ignoring the increasing tension among them due to significant disputes in different areas.

Washington's policy of supporting the PYD and YPG in Syria aims to push regional states into more clashes, which will only benefit Israeli interests at the end of the day

Earlier this week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan along with a large delegation, including myself. The top two items on the agenda were the economic integration of the Turkic world and the fight against the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).

There was a time when you could have called Turkey's relationship with the U.S. a "strategic partnership."

The Trump administration is destroying the system that the U.S. established in the wake of World War II by alienating its long-time allies