Journal of International Relations & Foreign Policy

Default Power in the MENA Region: Turkey as a Pragmatic Solution to the Post-Arab Spring Era
HalukKaradag, Patricia J. Woods

Abstract
Over the last few years a political transformation period has been started in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. An unfortunate event of a street vendor’s death in Tunisia initiated the period of “Arab Spring”, “Arab Awakening” or “Arab Uprisings” (Brownlee, Masoud& Reynolds 2015: 10). In addition to that, problems among Israel and Palestine, and crisis in Syria and Iraq have made the things more complicated in this part of the world. Although it seems difficult to find a solution to stabilize and ease the tensions in the short run, there are needed new kinds of power(s) or coalitions. In order to achieve peace and tranquility how should be formed a new balance/nodes of power in the region and what should be the role of the United States in this unstable environment? This article attempts to find out feasible solutions and alternative suggestions by focusing on hard and soft power resources of the regional states and shifting alliances in MENA.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jirfp.v3n2a1