Turkey’s struggle with the PKK and civilian control over the Turkish Armed Forces

Although most scholars of Turkey’s civil-military relations argue that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) insurgency has led to a decrease in civilian control over the Turkish military from the 1980s onwards, this has not always been the case. This article argues that the presence or the degree of the PKK threat is not sufficient to explain the civil-military balance of power in Turkey throughout the 1980s and the 1990s. Instead, the article shows that in the face of the PKK threat, three major factors have influenced the behaviours of both civilian and military policy-makers in Turkey and shaped the level of civilian control. These factors are first, the Turkish political leaders’ control over their political parties and these parties’ control of a majority of seats in the parliament; second, how negatively or positively the military perceives the political leadership; and third, European Union pressures for democratisation.     

Water power: the domestic and geostrategic dimensions of Turkey’s GAP Project

The Southeastern Anatolia Project (Güneydogu Anadolu Projesi, GAP), which was designed for the socio-economic development of south-east Turkey, has multiple political and strategic dimensions. While GAP was intended to narrow the socio-economic gap between the south-east and the rest of Turkey through development of the region, and to secure Turkey’s future energy needs, the associated hydro-politics intertwine domestic and geopolitics in relation to water flow to downstream riparian states Syria and Iraq, securing Turkey a geostrategic position in the broader Middle Eastern context in terms of regional hydro-hegemony, while also impacting on relations with Kurds at home and in surrounding states.     

The structure-identity nexus: Syria and Turkey’s collapse (2011)

The relation between Syria and Turkey transformed from enmity in the 1990s to détente in the early 2000s, grew into amity after the rise to power of the Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP, Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi) in 2002, and reverted to enmity in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. This research suggests that a combination of structural and identity-based factors, at regional and domestic levels, induced the collapse of the decade-long amity. This paper builds on the notion of a “structure-identity nexus”; and determines the orientation of foreign policy outcomes from the 1990s until 2011. The discussion outlines the merits of a hybrid theoretical perspective by elaborating on Barkin’s idea of ‘realist constructivism’, which draws on two rival traditions, realism and constructivism. The structure-identity framework explains the double transformation in the relationship, considering the return to inter- and intra-state conflict in 2011. The research draws on extensive primary and secondary sources, as well as interviews carried out with key figures. In addition to the relationship between Syria and Turkey, the structure-identity nexus provides potential broader explanations that fuel the shift from amity to enmity in the complex network of states found in the Middle East.     

The Pandora’s box: democratization and rule of law in Turkey

A prominent question in the literature on democracy is concerned with the role of external factors in stimulating the process of democratization and uploading rule of law. This paper tackles the following questions: How does the political conditionality of an international organization—the EU in this case—stimulate democracy in third countries? Equally important, does conditionality always have a positive impact and could it be possible to witness the EU undermining democracy in an unexpected manner? This paper addresses these questions through an analysis of the Turkish democracy in the light of its accession to the EU and through an application of the EU membership conditionality by looking at rule of law in Turkey. The general contention in the political conditionality literature is that the EU enables an acceding country to adopt its democratic principles, and facilitates transition to democracy, while strengthening rule of law. However, the Turkish transformation seems to challenge this contention. This paper proposes that the EU’s political conditionality in bringing about political transformation in Turkey as a membership precondition unexpectedly illuminated the underlying anti-democratic tendencies and tensions in Turkish politics. The democratization process in Turkey since 1999, partly stimulated by the EU, has opened up a Pandora’s box releasing the conflict between the secularists and religious conservatives in Turkey that has long been suppressed. This paper analyzes these cleavages through the prism of EU political conditionality with regards to rule of law.     

Jacques Vergès,Rupture Strategy and the Argentinean New Left: Circulations and Adaptations of a Judiciary Theory

This article deals with the transatlantic circulations of the theory of “rupture strategy”, popularised by French lawyer Jacques Vergès in the early 1960s. In the early 1970s, the concept was imported and adapted to the Argentinean context by radical left-wing lawyers. Their uses of rupture strategy were modelled by their perception of Argentina as being a “semi-colonised” country, whose situation was comparable to that of Algeria. In the 1980s however, in a context of democratisation, the same lawyers reassessed their uses of “Vergesian” vocabulary and progressively renounced rupture strategy, while still maintaining a critique of liberal penal law. To account for this evolution, this article adopts a socio-historical perspective. It shows that the reception of Vergès’ theory must be understood as a dynamic process, in which the permanent interaction and the contradictory evolution of two different contexts (context of reception and context of origin), interfere with the continued importation of rupture strategy.     

Ukraine,Russia and the strategic partnership dynamics in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood: recalibrating the EU’s ‘self’, ‘we’ and ‘other’

The present contribution explores the changing relationship between the European Union (EU) and the two largest countries in its eastern neighbourhood, namely Ukraine and Russia, between 1991 and 2014. Taking the differential between the existence of the EU Strategic Partnership (SP) with Russia and the absence of such an arrangement in the relationship with Ukraine as a point of departure, it investigates how the EU has dealt with different aspirations and challenges stemming from its two largest eastern neighbours. Adopting the Social Identity Theory perspective, the contribution analyses the interrelationship between the evolution of the EU’s SP approach towards the eastern neighbours and the development of (particular dimensions of) the EU’s identity. It demonstrates how the process of categorization relating to the ideational ‘self’, ‘we’ and ‘other’ took place; and how only the EU’s relationship with Russia and not that with Ukraine has accumulated the discursive markers of a strategic partnership. The contribution, furthermore, analyses the challenges to the EU changing approach stemming from the 2013–2014 Ukraine crisis.     

Building the West’s On-Ramp to China’s Belt and Road: Opportunities in the South Caucasus

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is already changing infrastructure and production across much of the world. The three states of the South Caucasus and their counterparts in Central Asia need diverse connectivity to preserve their economic and political independence amid China’s expanding influence. Despite some rhetoric and practical measures, the United States and the European Union (EU) continue to underestimate the BRI. This article identifies recent international and regional developments that converge to create a unique opportunity for the West and South Caucasus partners. They may develop integrated, long-terms infrastructure of lasting mutual benefit. The convergence of events in and around the South Caucasus offers the place for the West to build an “On-Ramp” to the BRI. The South Caucasus provide a potential gateway into Asia’s heart that is not dictated solely by the priorities of Chinese foreign or commercial policies, just as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline of a generation ago served a similar role.     

Vajpayee’s China Tour and the Sino -Indian Relations

OnJune 2 2 - 2 7,AtalBihariVajpayee ,India’sPrimeMinister,paidafruitfulvisittoChina .ThePrimeMinistersofthetwosidessignedaprogrammaticdocumentforthedevelopmentofrelations - -“DeclarationonPrinciplesforRelationsandComprehensiveCooperationbetweenthePeople’sRepublicofChinaandRepublicofIndia .”①Theyalsoconcludedninerelatedagreements .TheeventsshowedthatSino -Indianrelationshaveenteredanewphaseofdevelopment.Thetwogovernmentsshouldcon tinuetomakeeveryefforttoelevatethegood -neighborlya…     

Deterrence and Protection in the EU’s Migration Policy

EU migration and asylum policy is facing tough challenges at the southern borders of the Union as migration and asylum pressures rise, fuelled by political instability and poverty in several regions of Asia and Africa. Current European border control practices create three spaces of control: externalised borders, through readmission and return agreements which enrol third countries in border control; the EU borders themselves through the work of Frontex and the development of a whole arsenal of technology tools for controlling mobility to and from the EU; and the Schengen area, whose regulations tend to reinforce deterrence at the borders through the Smart Border System. As a result, the EU’s balancing act between irregular migration control and protection of refugees and human life clearly tips towards the former, even if it pays lip service to the latter. More options for mobility across the Mediterranean and more cooperation for growth are essential ingredients of a sustainable migration management policy on the EU’s southern borders. In addition asylum management could benefit from EU level humanitarian visas issued at countries of origin.     

Changing and Unchanging Elements in the Global Order and China’s Strategy

We live in a world which changing in all respects. Some aspects of the global order are obviously changing. Some of these changes are not yet complete as there has not yet been any essential change in quality or quantity. First, the global order is changing in terms of numbers. The global order and strategic configuration is about the distribution     

China’s Economic Contributions to the World and East Asia

China’s continued high economic growth hasdrawn increasing attention of the world. However,it has received very different evaluations, withthe most representative and conflicting ones being“China threat theory”or “China harm theory”vs.“China opportu     

China’s Interests in and Influence over the Middle East

The Middle East became a critical region for China after 1993, when Beijing became a net oil importer. From this point, it became enmeshed in the complicated regional situation. And so China must realize its basic interests and policy objectives in the Middle East as well as set up an overall, balanced, clear and long-term strategic framework. Policy choices should be made in accordance with such factors as diplomatic tradition, national strength and political ideology.     

Germany’s Ocean Greyhounds and the Royal Navy’s First Battle Cruisers: An Historiographical Problem

Recently some revisionist historians have contested the evidential basis for the argument put forward by their post-revisionist colleagues that the growth of the German mercantile marine, most particularly ships capable of being transformed into armed commerce raiders, was viewed with alarm in the British Admiralty and played a significant part in shaping British naval policy before 1914. Looking in detail at their reasoning, this assessment demonstrates that the rejection of this argument is based upon a faulty and incomplete understanding of the documentary record. Moreover, it is driven by a desire to defend the thesis that they have previously articulated that the expansion of German maritime power played a limited role in British defence policy before 1914. However, their objections do not withstand detailed scrutiny. Whatever might have been the British view of the long-term threat posed by Russia and France, Germany’s growing strength, including in merchant shipping, loomed large as a security problem in the decade and a half before 1914. The wartime activities of German commerce raiders, notably the Kronprinz Wilhelm, suggest that fears of a German commerce war were entirely rational.     

Emulating Erasmus? Turkey’s Mevlana exchange program in higher education

Asia Europe Journal - In today’s world, globalization and internationalization of education necessitate new initiatives to catch the new era. Turkey, as a country in between the east and the...     

Asia’s and Europe’s energy policy challenges: introduction

We bring together a collection of papers that were presented at the inaugural event of the Asia‐Europe Energy Policy Research Network (AEEPRN), held at Singapore in May 2012. The idea for creating AEEPRN was in response to the growing importance of energy in Asia and Europe’s relations and to our shared belief that energy will become a more significant aspect of these relations over the forthcoming years and decades. The papers presented here cover the following themes: wind energy, biofuels, natural gas and gas pipelines, exergy and manufacturing, green energy co‐operation, coal, unconventional gas and solar energy.     

Central Asia’s pipeline politics and India’s energy quest

Asia Europe Journal - Although Central Asia emerged out of the ashes of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, yet the ‘Five Stans’ (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan...     

Culture and women’s land rights on the ground in Uganda

In this article, culture as an ideology is contrasted to culture as a reality. The article aims to make a contribution to the study of land tenure rights in Uganda by using a cultural lens to discuss how women’s land rights are taking shape as regards changing inheritance practices and improving land use patterns through diversified projects. The evidence from the study villages demonstrates that women’s land rights are not only important for women as a category of people, but also for their immediate and extended families, and society at large.