Meltem Müftüler-Baç

Turkey adopted a new strategy for its European Union accession process in 2014, in an attempt to revitalize its relations with the EU. Turkish foreign policy towards the European Union has remained consistent with full membership as its main goal. However, since 2013, there have been significant challenges for the realization of that foreign policy objective, with the altering geopolitical environment and the changing preferences in the European Union. Turkey’s own foreign policy choices towards the EU were impacted by the loss of both EU’s credibility in its enlargement policy and its attractiveness as an economic magnet. This paper analyzes the role of the EU specific external factors on Turkish foreign policy, and assesses the reformulation of Turkey’s relations with the European Union after 2014. The main conclusion of the paper is that Turkey’s foreign policy towards the EU has altered and a new pattern of cooperation is emerging between these two players.

Various scholars have analyzed Turkey’s foreign policy in the post-Cold War era from different angles. The changes in Turkish foreign policy, in line with the 1989 structural transformation, were important both for foreign policy analysts and for scholars working on International Relations theory. This book is a timely addition to this literature with its in-depth analysis and theoretical angle. Equally important is that since the end of the Cold War the academic community has become more receptive to the problems in the Middle East, the formulation of common foreign policy in the EU, and ethnic based violence in the Middle East. As a result, understanding such changes in foreign policy has become an object of scientific inquiry.