Volume XVI Autumn 2011

The seven articles in this special issue of Perceptions deal with different aspects of Türkish Foreign Policy within this new framework and aim to contribute to an understanding of the new foreign policy and offer insights into the new dynamics, openings and policy adjustments observed in TFP in the last decade. The articles published in this issue are translated and updated versions of Turkish originals published in a recently released book, entitled 2000’li Yıllar: Türkiye’de Dış Politika (The 2000s: Foreign Policy in Turkey). In this issue, Ibrahim Kalın deals with a new phenomenon in TFP: public diplomacy and soft power. There is almost universal agreement among scholars and policy makers that Turkey needs more effective public diplomacy tools to support its policy initiatives towards the neighboring regions and other geographies of interest. Şaban Kardaş examines a long- time issue of TFP, the transformation of Turkish-American relations. Hasan Kösebalaban examines TFP in the Middle East, another region which constitutes a major item on Turkey’s overall foreign policy agenda. He advances the argument that in the making of Turkey’s regional policies in the Middle East, not only material but also ideational factors play certain roles. Fahrettin Altun offers a sociological analysis of TFP. Altun focuses on the media’s representation strategies and provides a critical assessment of the “World” pages of the two widely- circulated national newspapers Hürriyet and Habertürk, in order to assess the coverage of international news. Another interesting area in TFP is Turkish-Russian relations. Fatih Özbay undertakes to explain the rapprochement between Turkey and Russia, particularly throughout the recent decade. The article written by Bülent Aras and Pınar Akpınar tackles the complexities of TFP in the Caucasus. Their study is based on analysis at the regional level, which takes into account policies of not only the regional countries but also a number of external actors with strong interest in the Caucasus.

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