Turkey’s Energy Geopolitics

Summer 2020 / Essays

Turkey is at one end of competing geostrategic visions in the Eastern Mediterranean, but are there avenues for reconciliation with countries at the opposite pole?

Re-Engineering Regional Security

June 21, 2020 / Midan

In the last half-century, Egypt has had to negotiate its way through the Arab–Israeli peace process, regional nuclear proliferation, and domestic political transition. What has it taught us?

The Empire He Did Not Want

November 19, 2019 / Midan

Erdoğan wanted to build a “neo-Ottoman” empire but missed out on what is strategically most important—real influence in the Middle East

Turkey’s Gradual Efforts to Professionalize Syrian Allies

December 14, 2018 / Tahrir Forum

Instead of putting its full strength behind unifying Syrian rebel groups, Ankara is slowly supporting that process without disturbing the status quo.

It’s tempting to blame the country’s recent slide into repression on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s thirst for personal power. But did the ruling Islamist party ever really abandon the country’s long tradition of state authoritarianism?