Although the use of chemical weapons in Syria has forced the United States (US) administration to take action, it does not seem to make a big difference in the US attitude towards the issue in terms of strategy.

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.

Forget about the intervention against those who betray the norm, the United States does not even adopt a dissuasive strategy in Egypt; therefore, foundations of a period where the use of chemical weapons by authoritarian regimes would be treated as normal from now on have been laid.

Whatever happens, relations between the two countries cannot and will not reach the high level of cooperation between Turkey’s pro-coup elites and Israel in the late 1990s.

As long as the U.S. insists on the old order of the Middle East via its support for Israel, it will soon no longer possess the necessary political software to deal with the new Middle East.

Morsi, with his newly earned momentum, intervened in the tutelary powers of the judiciary in the aftermath of Gaza.

Israel, with its attack on Gaza, has tried the United States. The results of this test show that America is still behind Israel.

The only way the U.S. can take a constructive role in the Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings is to follow a foreign policy that is realistic and geared towards restoring justice.

Lebanon is a microcosm of Middle Eastern conflicts, and it has often turned into a battlefield of conflicting regional and international actors.

SETA PANEL DISCUSSION Chair: Taha Özhan, SETA Panelists:        Bülent Aras, SETA & İTÜ     Mahmood Monshipouri,     San Francisco State University Date: March 22, 2010 Monday Time: 11.00 – 12.30 Venue: SETA Foundation, Ankara

President Obama's trip to Turkey April 6-7 is undoubtedly significant. The visit follows Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip abroad last month, which included two separate bilateral stops, Israel and Turkey.

Turkey's relations with NATO in parallel to signs that the United States and the European Union have embarked on a process of greater transatlantic integration demands closer attention

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's walkout in the midst of a discussion on Gaza in Davos won him millions of supporters not only in Turkey, but around the world. With his bold position on the Middle East peace process, Erdoğan has the Arab and Muslim streets behind him. 

Less than one week ahead of the US presidential election, Turkish-US relations and Turkey's role in its neighboring regions were the subject of a one-day conference organized by the SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

According to the US News & World Report (Sept. 27), President Bush uses the words “Islamic terrorist” with a clear agenda: the words “extremism,” “radical” and “Muslim” do not have the same dramatic tone as “Islamist terrorist.” The report says that while Bush has lightened up on using the word “Islamic” before terrorists, the advisers said in the background that the word should always be used because Americans believe that “Islamists” are those who act on terrorist threats. Words to avoid are “Muslim,” “extremist” and “radicals.”

The expectation from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) when it came to power in 2002 was that political discussions would be shaped by internal agenda issues.

Iraq is like a miniature of the Middle East with its population structure and social characteristics. Each domestic actor in Iraq has relations with ethnic and religious groups in the neighboring countries.