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Erdogan’s Counter-Revolution: What Went Wrong in Turkey?
The history of the twentieth century is littered with the carcasses of failed revolutions. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, and Hitler all tried to master modernity—to curb or accelerate it—and all failed. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, it appeared the most consequential revolutionary of the last century might turn out to be Mustafa Kemal Pasha, better known as Atatürk, founder of the secular Republic of Turkey. Amidst the wreckage of the multinational Ottoman Empire, Atatürk emerged victorious, using bourgeois nationalism as a basis for reforming a Muslim country in an attempt to demonstrate that popular sovereignty and Islam could successfully coexist. That proposition remains to be disproven, but the Atatürk revolution itself died on April 16, 2017—the day Turkey's current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, succeeded in his longstanding effort to transform the country's parliamentary government into an executive presidency.
Analysis
U.S. Grand Strategy in an Age of Nationalism: Fortress America and its Alternatives
America is an exceptional nation, but not when it comes to the wave of nationalism sweeping the globe. Across multiple continents, leaders and polities are pushing back against globalization and integration; they are reasserting national sovereignty as a bulwark against international tumult. In the United States, this nationalist resurgence has manifested in a sharp and potentially existential challenge to the internationalist project that has animated U.S. grand strategy since World War II.
Analysis
5 Things We’re About to Learn About Syria, Putin and Trump
As a result of the U.S. airstrikes against the Syrian military last week, we are all about to learn a great deal. It is, surely, too soon to know precisely what impact the strikes ordered by President Donald Trump will have on the regime and where the Syrian civil war is heading. This is largely because key players including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia, Iran and the Syrian opposition -- not to mention the U.S. -- are still plotting their next moves.
Analysis
Navigating Great Power Rivalry in The 21st Century
The post-Cold War international system is coming to an end, and with it easy assumptions about the character of U.S. strategy toward the world’s great powers.
Analysis
Countering Beijing’s Manoeuvres in the South China Sea
Last month it appeared that the Chinese were again on the move in the South China Sea.
The provincial administrator of Beijing’s land claims in the region told Chinese state media that work would soon begin on an ‘environmental monitoring station’ on Scarborough Shoal, a large reef system just 140 nautical miles west of Subic Bay, well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
Analysis
Three Ways to Negotiate a Secure Brexit for Britain and the EU
Since Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) in last year’s referendum, London has spent many months crafting its approach to Brexit. Now that the British government has triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, formally signaling Britain’s intention to depart the EU, it can turn its attention to the negotiations with Brussels on a host of topics.