Strategic Flexibility under Geopolitical Anxiety
The COVID-19 pandemic dominated the year 2020, as the world encountered a great test on health care, economy and humanity. Several countries confiscated each other’s personal protective equipment (PPE) and went down in the history of shame. Against the backdrop of all the chatter about “the new normal” and “nothing will be the same again,” the truth is that power competition in the international system has escalated even further.
2021 will be an essential year for Turkey's foreign policy agenda and practice. Reforms, renewal and forward-looking perspectives are likely to be the focal points of Ankara's foreign policy this year. However, Turkey's structural challenges and diverging issues with key allies like the United States and some European countries are unlikely to see immediate resolutions.
The wave of democratization, which began with the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, took down the authoritarian leaders of Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Whereas the uprising in Bahrain was crushed thanks to Saudi Arabia’s military intervention, Iran and Russia ensured the survival of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria.
Sharing similar concerns in the region, Ankara and Baghdad have opened a new page in cooperation, which is particularly bad news for PKK terrorists