Reports

In their dealings with Washington, Moscow and Ankara, European powers and also Brussels make little attempt to understand the other side. Behaving as if they were morally superior, shortsighted leaders ignore geopolitical realities and put Europe’s vital interests at longer-term risk

Europe can ill afford to farm out its foreign and defense policies to Brussels. The centralized, technocratic command center of the European Union is best suited to attend to the common market. Europe will come back as a global actor only if the continental European member states and the United ...

The latest violent chapter in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has rebalanced geopolitical realities in the South Caucasus. Turkey has made significant progress in expanding its role there. Even more disturbingly for the Kremlin, the 2020 war has been associated with a surge in radical political Islam that threatens to spill ...

In October, the key domestic actors in Libya’s conflict resumed political dialogue. Three factors have helped this process: the military setback suffered by the warlord ruling in the east, Khalifa Haftar; the prolonged cease-fire, and the mounting street protests as the country sinks into chaos.

The militias of Tobruk-based warlord Khalifa Haftar failed to take the capital of Libya and are being pushed out from the western part of the country, where there are strategic oil fields. Turkey’s intervention played a decisive role in this military outcome. As other external powers engaged in Libya consider ...

Turkey and Russia, with their history of centuries-long rivalry in the Black Sea and the Middle East, are both pursuing deft regional policies that reflect a complex web of aligned and conflicting strategic interests

Turkey’s political behavior poses problems for NATO, of which it is an important member. Until recently, the country was a formidable partner of the Western alliance in its confrontation with the Soviet Union and a buffer against threats from the Middle East. Turkey still fields the alliance’s second-largest army, after ...

Sitting at the intersection of important energy transfer routes, Turkey is an active participant in the high-stakes pipeline game between the European Union, Russia and the Caspian region energy producers. Ankara has increased its geopolitical heft and secured earnings from gas transit fees but at the price of making Turkey ...

The truce brokered by Turkey and Russia in northwestern Syria has prevented a slaughter of the remnants of the Syrian opposition forces and scores of hapless civilians. This highlights the pragmatic attitudes of the two powers that have assumed key roles in the Syria conflict. The danger of a larger ...

The relentless rise of Iran is also making itself felt in the South Caucasus, a region ridden by border conflicts and great-power rivalry. The inroad is Azerbaijan. The small but oil-rich Caspian Sea state with a border issue with a neighbor is being intensely courted by Tehran and Saudi Arabia, ...

Ankara is still groping for the right policy mix in dealing with complex challenges to Turkey’s vital interests in the Middle East, North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea region. A paradigm change, however, diverting its geopolitical attention away from Europe and NATO and toward its historic neighborhood, is ...

Europe can no longer take Turkey for granted or ignore its vital interests. Many in the West are rightfully displeased with the weakening of important institutions that the country has seen under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but realpolitik dictates cooperation in mutual interest. Europe and Turkey are ...

Turkey is a regional power, a direct neighbor of Middle Eastern states and their historic trading and political partner. The West continues to ignore its national interests only at the risk of its own security.

The steady flow of migrants from the Middle East and Africa suddenly exploded in 2015 into the greatest crisis of its kind in Europe since World War II. How this happened and what the EU and national governments ought to do about it is examined in this survey of work ...

Much of the instability and risk in the global environment can be traced to Western nations’ tendency to judge their rivals, but also allies and partners, through the prism of so-called Western values. The United States is powerful, self-sustained and geographically isolated enough to get away with it for a ...

Early returns suggest that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has prevailed in the referendum on giving him sweeping new powers, even if this mandate may not be a strong one at this point. The European Union should tread carefully: rather than try to marginalize the leader of Turkey, it should ...

Evidence that Russia tried to manipulate the outcome of the United States presidential elections is flimsy. It is increasingly clear, though, that EU leaders themselves are manipulating their electorates with gross anti-Turkey populism as they try to cling to power.

Turkey has been undergoing profound social and political change. During the rule of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), the country has moved quite a distance away from a secular liberal democracy toward an Islamist model, with key powers vested in the presidency. The fact that a ...

With Russia’s economy heading for recession and isolation from markets in the West, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is cultivating alternative friendships in and around Europe. Although the rewards may be meagre, what is likely to be achieved is mischief. The European powers’ efforts to maintain a common EU policy on ...

The strategic energy ellipse is one of the hottest geopolitical regions in the world - home to vast reserves of oil and gas and stretching from western Siberia to the Arabian Peninsula. Critically, Iran and Iraq are at its centre. As Russia eases out of the picture as the main ...

Iraq has a new government headed by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi with key posts promised to Sunni and Kurdish politicians as part of a power-sharing deal to tackle the growing rise of Islamic State (IS). The real and present danger of IS reaches far and wide and is leading to ...

Investors are facing continued low returns in the West as interest rates remain low in the short-term. This provides an opportunity for developing economies to attract money to invest and develop growth. But investors now want reforms and good governance in these countries as well as a return on their ...

Turkey has robust institutions that stabilize the country. Some of these, such as the Supreme Court, seem to have been weakened and are more dependent on politics. But the judicial system is still working and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not an Islamic dictator.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first visit to Azerbaijan in more than seven years reflected the complex and sometimes strained relationship between the two oil producing countries - highlighted by Azerbaijan’s westward-oriented energy focus. But Moscow is intent on continuing its efforts to keep Azerbaijan in its sphere of influence while ...