Turkey’s Tendency Toward Grandiosity
by Guest Blogger for Steven A. Cook
August 1, 2013
Aaron Stein has argued in these pages that the AKP’s foreign policy is underlined by more realism than idealism. Certainly the party has crafted different policies toward different Arab states. But there’s a larger process at work here that runs deeper than the AKP, and that is the Turkish state’s tendency to think of foreign policy in large, grandiose frameworks conditioned on Turkish leadership. This preference of over-hyping Turkey’s importance has led to short-sighted policies, an inability to anticipate regional and, especially, domestic changes in other countries, and a rigidity that precludes quick enough adaption to these changes.
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