The Impacts of Arab Spring on Turkish Foreign Policy Towards the Middle East and North Africa
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Abic, Ferda
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
Baldi, Gregory
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Western Illinois University
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2019
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
77 p.
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
M.A.
Body granting the degree
Western Illinois University
Text preceding or following the note
2019
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
The MENA regions, together with the Arab Spring which started in Tunisia in 2010, entered into a change and transformation period full of uncertainties. Turkey is a part of these important and complicated regions with a significant geostrategic position. Since 2002, the AKP continued one-party rule in Turkey and it has brought significant changes that affected Turkey's foreign policy. In this thesis, the impacts of the Arab Spring on Turkish foreign policy under the AKP have been analyzed from the neoclassical realism perspective. By adopting the neoclassical realist theory, Turkish foreign policy has been examined through system level constraints and state level variables such as the perception and identity of the AKP in order to explain Turkey's political strategies towards the MENA region. The process-tracing method and "before and after" design has been used for this single case study in order to understand the change that took place in Turkish foreign policy after the Arab Spring. This study argues that systemic factors constrained policy choices of Turkey however, the perception, ideology and increasing political power consolidation of the AKP's in Turkey are determining factors that shaped foreign policy strategies.