İrem Aşkar Karakır

Based on the commonly held assumptions about the inability of the European Union (EU) to cope with new challenges, this paper raises the question of whether the EU will assume greater responsibility for peace, especially in its neighborhood, in the short-term. It contributes to answering this question through focusing on EU mechanisms, instruments and policies of crisis management (civilian-military) since the 1990s, which is embodied in the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). In March 2015, the European External Action Service (EEAS) presented a report on CSDP indicating problems in crisis management. Yet, the EU strives for efficient activities. It considered reviewing its neighborhood policy as well as Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) to enable more effective actions to deal with crises. Today, it has a huge “toolbox” to address crises. The EU attaches great importance to a coherent and comprehensive strategy in crisis situations. Observing that a comprehensive strategy of the EU was launched in early 2015 to deal with the crisis in Syria, this paper questions to what extent the EU’s new arguments for crisis management are realized in its regional strategy for Syria. While the Syrian crisis is still unfolding, its impacts on the EU in the form of rising terror attacks in Europe by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and an unprecedented influx of migrants are remarkable. Keywords: EU, crisis management, CSDP, Syria, EU foreign policy

Uluslararasi Iliskiler disiplinindeki baslica guncel calisma alanlarindan bir tanesi de farkli yaklasimlar barindiran normatif kuramdir. Iki tane baslica yaklasim vardir: 1980’lerdeki felsefi tartismalara dayanan Kozmopolitan yaklasim ve Toplulukcu yaklasim. Ucuncu bir grup 1990’li yillarin basindan beri bu ayrimi sorgulamaktadir. Bu makalenin amaci, Kozmopolitan-Toplulukcu ikilem hakkindaki son otuz yildir devam etmekte olan kuramsal literaturu elestirel olarak incelemektir. Bu makalede, zor oldugu kabul edilmekle birlikte ucuncu bir yaklasimin olabilecegi iddia edilmektedir. Ozellikle Kozmopolitan yaklasimdaki ahlaksal ve siyasal olmak uzere ikili ayrima odaklanilarak, ucuncu bir yaklasimin olabilirligi ve bununla beraber evrensel ahlak olasiligi arastirilmaktadir

Arap Bahari surecinde, ulkelerine siyasi ozgurlukler ve temel haklari getirmek amaciyla gerceklesen eylemlere onemli olcude destek veren Arap kadinlari devrimleri takip eden surecte yeni kurulan hukumetlerde siyasetten dislanmis ve otoriter yonetimler sirasinda sahip olduklari haklari dahi kaybetmislerdir. Makale bu celiskili durumu inceleyebilmek icin karsilastirmali siyasetin uc arastirma yontemine (yapisal, kulturel ve rasyonel secim yaklasimlarina) basvurmustur. Yapisal yaklasimla, gecis surecinde olusturulmaya calisilan anayasa gibi kurumlarin ve kurumsal yapilarin kadin haklari uzerindeki etkisine odaklanilirken; kulturel analizle ataerkil yapilarin, dinin ve Islamcilarin basa gecmesinin kadinlarin ozgurluklerini kisitlamasi konusundaki etkisi ele alinmistir. Ayrica rasyonel secim yaklasimi ile incelenen ulkelerde ic savasin sonlandirilmasi, guvenligin saglanmasi ve ekonomik krizlerin cozumu gibi oncelikleri olan konular varken kadin haklarina fazla onem verilmemesi konusu aciklanmaya calisilmistir. Makalede Misir, Tunus, Yemen ve Libya’daki Arap Bahari oncesi ve sonrasindaki kadin haklari konulari ozellikle kadinin siyasi temsili uzerine odaklanilarak karsilastirmali olarak analiz edilecektir. Calisma soz konusu ulkelerdeki yeni rejimlerin, kulturel ve yapisal olarak kadin haklarini fazla desteklememesine ilaveten gecis surecine dair daha acil sorunlarla ugrasilmasi nedeniyle kadinlarin siyasi haklarinda iyilesme elde edilemedigini one surmektedir.

It has been almost three years since the eruption of the civil war in Yemen by March 2015, leading to high political instability and severe humanitarian crisis. This article elaborates on the civil war in Yemen by focusing on the interests of main actors, who are involved in the ongoing conflict. The article also evaluates the nature of civil war in Yemen, mainly questioning the liability of describing the tension as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In recent years, there has been a tendency to explain Yemeni conflict through the lens of a religious struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi’a Iran in order to reinforce their control over the region. It is argued in this study that it would be misleading to call Yemen’s ongoing crisis as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The tension did not emerge as a result of clash of interests by these two countries. Rather it would be fair to suggest that involvement of Saudi Arabia and Iran in Yemen’s civil war further trig...

China’s foreign policy toward the Middle East has traditionally been shaped by its national interests based on energy security, arms exports, and technology transfers. To complement its interest-driven regional policies, China has expanded its diplomatic contacts and promoted cultural ties. Over the last two decades, China has also engaged in conflict management in several regional issues, despite its declared commitment to nonintervention in other countries’ domestic affairs. This article aims to analyze China’s conflict management policies in the region, focusing on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Iran’s nuclear program and the Syrian conflict. Compared with other major external powers, prospects for China’s conflict management seem high given two significant advantages. First, unlike Western powers or Russia, China has not left any bitter taste in the region associated with colonialism, religious or historical engagement. Secondly, China has been careful not to take clear-cut s...

China’s foreign policy toward the Middle East has traditionally been shaped by  its national interests based on energy security, arms exports, and technology  transfers. To complement its interest-driven regional policies, China has  expanded its diplomatic contacts and promoted cultural ties. Over the last  two decades, China has also engaged in conflict management in several regional  issues, despite its declared commitment to nonintervention in other countries’  domestic affairs. This article aims to analyze China’s conflict management policies  in the region, focusing on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Iran’s nuclear program and the Syrian conflict. Compared with other major external powers, prospects  for China’s conflict management seem high given two significant advantages. First,  unlike Western powers or Russia, China has not left any bitter taste in the  region associated with colonialism, religious or historical engagement. Secondly,  China has been careful not to take clear-cut sides in regional conflicts, making  itself an ideal candidate to act as an honest broker. It is argued that despite these advantages, Chinese conflict management in the region has remained  considerably modest and lacked any practical solutions to the critical problems.

This article elaborates on the theoretical foundations as well as the empirical outputs of climaterelated migration and formulates a contemporary framework in analyzing this subject. There has been a paradigm shift from securitizing climate-related migration towards an emphasis on adaptation, resilience and justice. While it is still possible to talk about security-oriented discourses based on the realist approach, climate change has increasingly been recognized as a 'threat multiplier' rather than a sole primary threat. In the meantime, the liberal approach has embraced adaptation, resilience and climate justice discourses about climate refugees. On the empirical front, climate-related migration is observed mainly in South Asia, the Pacific and Africa.

It has been almost three years since the eruption of the civil war in Yemen by March 2015, leading to high political instability and severe humanitarian crisis. This article elaborates on the civil war in Yemen by focusing on the interests of main actors, who are involved in the ongoing conflict. The article also evaluates the nature of civil war in Yemen, mainly questioning the liability of describing the tension as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In recent years, there has been a tendency to explain Yemeni conflict through the lens of a religious struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'a Iran in order to reinforce their control over the region. It is argued in this study that it would be misleading to call Yemen's ongoing crisis as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The tension did not emerge as a result of clash of interests by these two countries. Rather it would be fair to suggest that involvement of Saudi Arabia and Iran in Yemen's civil war further triggered and complicated the already existing tensions in the country. The outcome is a complex pattern of conflict which the author of this article argues is indeed different from a proxy war.

Joseph S. Nye defined soft power as the power of attraction to affect the behavior of other states through the use of non-coercive instruments including culture, political values and foreign policy. Over the last two decades, environmental issues have grown in importance on the international agenda and become critical components of states’ foreign policy-making. This paper aims to analyze environmental foreign policy as a soft power instrument focusing on two major rising powers: China and India. Traditionally, China and India had been reluctant to make any commitments in the field. However, they have shown greater willingness to act in global environmental governance in the past decade. They started playing more active roles in global climate change negotiations and supported a number of initiatives. Their current rise in global environmental governance has even been praised by the international community as the Paris agreement case demonstrated. This study evaluates China’s and India’s recent efforts in global environmental governance with a focus on climate change negotiations linking their constructive position to their soft power potential. It is argued that environmental issues are used by these two states as foreign policy strategy to gain more influence in international politics. This study finds out that China’s climate-related environmental diplomacy has been more ambitious than that of India and thus has been closer to fulfill its potential as a soft power asset.

Based on the commonly held assumptions about the inability of the European Union (EU) to cope with new challenges, this paper raises the question of whether the EU will assume greater responsibility for peace, especially in its neighborhood, in the short-term. It contributes to answering this question through focusing on EU mechanisms, instruments and policies of crisis management (civilian-military) since the 1990s, which is embodied in the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). In March 2015, the European External Action Service (EEAS) presented a report on CSDP indicating problems in crisis management. Yet, the EU strives for efficient activities. It considered reviewing its neighborhood policy as well as Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) to enable more effective actions to deal with crises. Today, it has a huge “toolbox” to address crises. The EU attaches great importance to a coherent and comprehensive strategy in crisis situations. Observing that a comprehensive strategy of the EU was launched in early 2015 to deal with the crisis in Syria, this paper questions to what extent the EU’s new arguments for crisis management are realized in its regional strategy for Syria. While the Syrian crisis is still unfolding, its impacts on the EU in the form of rising terror attacks in Europe by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and an unprecedented influx of migrants are remarkable.
Keywords: EU, crisis management, CSDP, Syria, EU foreign policy

Öz Arap Baharı sürecinde, ülkelerine siyasi özgürlükler ve temel hakları getirmek amacıyla gerçekleşen eylemlere önemli ölçüde destek veren Arap kadınları devrimleri takip eden süreçte yeni kurulan hükümetlerde siyasetten dışlanmış ve otoriter yönetimler sırasında sahip oldukları hakları dahi kaybetmişlerdir. Makale bu çelişkili durumu inceleyebilmek için karşılaştırmalı siyasetin üç araştırma yöntemine (yapısal, kültürel ve rasyonel seçim yaklaşımlarına) başvurmuştur. Yapısal yaklaşımla, geçiş sürecinde oluşturulmaya çalışılan anayasa gibi kurumların ve kurumsal yapıların kadın hakları üzerindeki etkisine odaklanılırken; kültürel analizle ataerkil yapıların, dinin ve İslamcıların başa geçmesinin kadınların özgürlüklerini kısıtlaması konusundaki etkisi ele alınmıştır. Ayrıca rasyonel seçim yaklaşımı ile incelenen ülkelerde iç savaşın sonlandırılması, güvenliğin sağlanması ve ekonomik krizlerin çözümü gibi öncelikleri olan konular varken kadın haklarına fazla önem verilmemesi konusu açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır. Makalede Mısır, Tunus, Yemen ve Libya'daki Arap Baharı öncesi ve sonrasındaki kadın hakları konuları özellikle kadının siyasi temsili üzerine odaklanılarak karşılaştırmalı olarak analiz edilecektir. Çalışma söz konusu ülkelerdeki yeni rejimlerin, kültürel ve yapısal olarak kadın haklarını fazla desteklememesine ilaveten geçiş sürecine dair daha acil sorunlarla uğraşılması nedeniyle kadınların siyasi haklarında iyileşme elde edilemediğini öne sürmektedir. Abstract Arab women who supported the protests of the Arab Spring, which attempted to bring political rights and civil liberties to their countries, found themselves isolated from the transition process in the aftermath of the revolutions. Moreover, Arab women have even lost the rights they received during the rule of the former authoritarian leaders. This article in an attempt to analyze this conflicting situation and will refer to three research methods of comparative politics: structural, cultural and rational choice approaches. By referring to structural analysis, the study looks at the impact of institutions such as the constitution and the institutional structures on women's rights. Through a cultural analysis, it concentrates on how the patriarchal life style, religion and Islamists in power constrained women's rights. By referring to a rational choice approach, the study argues that new regimes – while prioritizing the issues such as ending the war, providing security and resolving the economic crisis – have not paid much attention to women's rights. The article will concentrate on women's rights and political representation prior to and in the aftermath of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Libya. The article will argue that there has not been much improvement in women's rights in four countries as a result of cultural and structural reasons, as well as the rational choices.