Turkey, Asia and the EU in a Changing Global Order.

Turkey, Asia and the EU in a Changing Global Order

Institutes:

Yaşar University Center for Mediterranean Studies, University of East London

Project Members:

Assoc. Dr. Sinan Ünlüsoy, Yaşar University Center for Mediterranean Studies
Dr. Defne Gönenç, Yaşar University Center for Mediterranean Studies
Prof. Vasileios Fouskas, Centre for the Study of States, Markets and People, University of East London
Prof. Qingan (Angus) Huang, University of East London

Project Duration: Feb 22 - Dec 22

Contact:

Assoc. Dr. Sinan Ünlüsoy, email: sinan.unlusoy@yasar.edu.tr
Dr. Defne Gönenç, email: defne.gonenc@yasar.edu.tr
 

The project aimed to discuss how the power shift to Asia occurred over the last two decades, assessing its impacts on Turkey-Asia relations and examining its consequences for Turkey-EU relations.
Recent scholarship argued that Turkey’s increased interest in establishing relations with Asian powers over the last twenty years was the result of a structural shift in global power from the United States to Asia, especially China and Southeast Asia. As the economic powers of the transatlantic economies – especially the Anglo-American economies – were in a protracted yet continuous decline, Turkey has sought to diversify its economic partners. The more China’s economic dynamism increased, the more it created conditions for contributing to, and even determining, the macroeconomic indicators of Asia as a whole – including Turkey’s. China’s new Belt and Road Initiative also added new dynamics – and heated debates – to the Mediterranean. Various commentators across the world were also noting the withdrawal of the US from the Middle East and North Africa and attributed it to the country’s relative economic decline over the last few decades. Turkey has meanwhile been undertaking significant political transformations domestically, such as a shift from a parliamentary to a presidential system. The country’s growing economic ties to Asia, and especially to China, was particularly significant in the context of this changing domestic political landscape because these changes had a higher potential to influence Turkey’s future development and its political and economic trajectory. New dynamics in economic and political relations between Turkey and Asia certainly left their imprint on Turkey-EU relations as well. This project thus proposed to examine Turkey’s domestic changes and foreign policy alterations in globally dynamic circumstances and its impacts on Turkey-Asia relations as well as the policy implications of these processes for Turkey-EU relations.
 

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