The Great Game in West Asia

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Ethnic Heterogeneity ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Strategic Competition ◽  
Regional Influence ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
Global Affairs ◽  
Great Game

The Great Game in West Asia examines the strategic competition between Iran and Turkey for power and influence in the South Caucasus. These neighboring Middle East powers have vied for supremacy throughout the region, while contending with ethnic heterogeneity within their own territories and across their borders. Turkey has long conceived of itself as not just a bridge between Asia and Europe but as a central player in regional and global affairs. Iran’s parallel ambitions for strategic centrality have only been masked by its own inarticulate foreign policy agendas and the repeated missteps of its revolutionary leaders. But both have sought to deepen their regional influence and power, and in the South Caucasus each has achieved a modicum of success. As much of the world’s attention has been diverted to conflicts near and far, a new ‘great game’ has been unravelling between Iran and Turkey in the South Caucasus.

Turkey’s Soft Power in a Comparative Context

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meliha Benli Altunışık
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Hard Power ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter focuses on the soft power of Turkey, comparing its engagements with the states of the South Caucasus (and Central Asia) to the countries of the Middle East. The chapter argues that for Turkey, the use of soft power was a tool to re-establish relations with, and acquire acceptance in, its neighborhood. In the case of the South Caucasus, Turkey attempted to reconnect with a region that it was cut off from for a long time due to the Soviet era and the Cold War. In the Middle East, there was an effort to redefine its engagement after a decade of securitization of its foreign policy in the 1990s. Although soft power increased Turkey’s visibility and presence, it is unclear if it changed the nature of Turkey’s influence, which remained highly limited when faced with the realities of hard power politics, unable to influence the regional actors it targeted.

scholarly journals Iranian Foreign Policy in the South Caucasus: Identity and National Interests

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-48
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Atrisangari
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Islamic Republic ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Policy Strategy ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior

Any foreign policy decision of a country is formed on the basis of certain principles and norms that constitute the identity and determine the role of this country. In case with Iran, although the norms that form the identity of the Islamic Republic are diverse and each of them can determine the role of the country outside its geographical borders, none of these norms totally dominates Iran’s foreign policy. Iran is a country located within (or neighboring to) several strategic regions, and in each of these regions it demonstrates different foreign policy strategy based on different norms. For example, Iran’s foreign policy in Transcaucasia is determined by principles and norms which, in some cases, are similar to the principles and norms of Iran’s foreign policy in Western Asia and, in other cases, are different from them. These divergent patterns of behavior can be accounted for by two concepts: identity and national interests. The article aims at clarifying the role of identity in determining Iran’s national interests in Transcaucasia and studies Iran’s foreign policy in the region within the mentioned framework. At the same time, the article seeks to examine the challenges associated with the principles and norms determining foreign policy, as well as identify the shortcomings of Iran’s foreign policy in the Transcaucasian region.

Medical Diplomacy and Iranian Foreign Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Ali Bagheri Dolatabadi ◽  
Mehran Kamrava
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Islamic Republic ◽  
The Future ◽  
Regional Influence ◽  
Medical Advances

Abstract Despite numerous studies of Iran in recent decades, the country’s concerted efforts to expand its medical diplomacy have been largely overlooked by experts and observers alike. This is despite the fact that the Islamic Republic has sought to employ medical diplomacy as a viable tool for expanding its soft power for a number of years. Over the course of the last two decades, in fact, Iranian authorities and health professionals have considered their medical advances to greatly add value to the country’s overall diplomatic profile. This article examines three basic questions: first, how has Iran used medical diplomacy to increase its regional influence in the Middle East? second, what are the factors that have contributed to the country’s success in this area? And, third, what are likely to be the regional consequences of Iran’s enhanced medical diplomacy in the future? The answers to these questions will present an overall picture of the current and future depth and voracity of Iran’s soft power.

Turkish northern Caucasus foreign policy impact Russian national security

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruslan Shangaraev ◽  
Aidamir Valiev
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northern Caucasus ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The North

Turkey offers itself to be a regional leader for the Middle East, North Africa, partly for the Balkans and the Caucasus, while pursuing its own interests, not least economic ones. Turkey's foreign policy activation, and not only in the South, but also in the North Caucasus, is probably intended to create an additional platform for foreign policy bargaining with Moscow on issues of interest to Ankara. When analyzing the foreign policy of Turkey during the rule of the ruling Justice and Development Party, of course, you need to pay special attention to the foreign policy concept of neo-Ottomanism, the architect of which is Ahmet Davutoglu. The developed new approach "strategic depth" means that for Turkish diplomacy, Turkey's deep historical and cultural roots in the Balkans, the Middle East, the Greater Caucasus and Central Asia (former territories of the Ottoman Empire) are more important than the existing state borders. The pragmatism of Ankara's foreign policy is also manifested in a sober assessment of the popularity in the Caucasus of such ideas as Great Turan (a pan-Turkic project of a single state for all ethnic Turks) and neo-Ottomanism. For Caucasians, the times of the rule of the Ottoman Empire are the golden age of prosperity. Turanism is more aimed at awakening "kindred feelings" based on the common Turkic heritage. "They are implementing practical humanitarian projects, identifying leaders of public opinion who are ready to cooperate. Ankara is pursuing a policy of small steps in order to change the social and cultural image of the region in the long term. In general, Turkish leader is confident that due to historical reasons and the realities of modern politics The Caucasus is a zone of direct strategic interests of Turkey. Ankara, relying on the support of the United States and NATO, takes an active part in most regional political and economic projects, actively intervenes in the affairs of the Middle East, South Caucasus, Central Asian and North African regions, tries to strengthen its role beyond their borders, which often overlaps with the national interests of Russia.

The US South Caucasian Policy under Donald Trump

2018 ◽  
pp. 55-59
Author(s):  
Khatuna Chapichadze
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Us South ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Us

After providing a brief overview of the US policy in the South Caucasus from the beginning of the 90s of the 20th century as there have emerged three new countries in the region after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the article mainly focuses on relatively less active engagement from the side of the United States into the affairs of the South Caucasus since the presidency of Barack Obama maintained if not untypically deepened even more under Donald Trump currently as well. These trends are explained through the prism of the general standpoints of the latest American administrations promoting the idea of less or non-interference of the superpower in other countries’, regions’ or continents’ notably domestic matters. There are discussed major implications of such, i.e. the less active US foreign policy observed among others, also in the South Caucasus lately, although in the case of this region clearly primarily with less desirable effects as it appears in fact, taking into account on the other hand however quite diverse needs and interests of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. The article critically analyses the consequences the US recent withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, as well as its re-imposition of economic sanctions against Iran might have for the South Caucasian countries, addresses the factor of latest uncertainty over the NATO member Turkey, covers the Russian problem, and raises one of the crucial issues whether the current US President Donald Trump has more actual decisive power than the Congress, also in terms of foreign policy implementation, or not.

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