Binnur Ozkececi-Taner

Decisionmaking Process Matters: Lessons Learned from Two Turkish Foreign Policy Cases1

This article suggests that the nature of the decision unit and the decisionmaking rules influence the foreign policy decisionmaking process. This is especially the case in “complex” foreign policy decisions. We discuss two such cases from the Turkish context—the decision to intervene militarily in Cyprus in 1974 and the decision to accept the EU candidacy offer during the Helsinki Summit in 1999—by applying the “decision‐units” framework. Our findings from the comparison of these two cases offer important lessons for Turkish foreign policy decision making especially under coalition decision units.

Turkey at the United Nations Security Council: ‘Rhythmic Diplomacy’ and a Quest for Global Influence

An important component of Turkeys ‘pivotal regional power’ status was its non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council in 2009–11. By focusing on two cases – the 2010 flotilla incident and the Iranian nuclearization – this study examines (1) Turkeys regional and global leadership role at the UN Security Council and (2) how the ‘rhythmic diplomacy’ principle of Turkeys foreign policy is exercised internationally. This paper also demonstrates that Turkeys policy of cooperation with other pivotal states signals possible future alliances among rising middle powers that might challenge western preferences on important issues. This study is timely as Turkey is seeking, again, non-permanent membership in the Security Council for the 2015–16 term.

Research Methods in Political Psychology

Given the interdisciplinary nature of political psychology research, the methods employed to produce scientific knowledge should be able to answer the questions raised in the discipline. The multitude of methods used in political psychology offers a variety of options for those interested in conducting research in political science. This article explains the basic structure of experimental design, survey research, and content analysis and briefly discusses the recent developments and interest growing on certain methods in the discipline. Each method is discussed in detail to the extent that would be sufficient to understand what one could achieve by using it.

Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding New Direction for America in the Middle East, Dennis Ross and David Makovsky (3rd Edition)

approach that the Brotherhood has maintained since the fall of Mubarak. Aida Seif El-Dawla’s chapter, entitled ‘Torture: A State Policy’, argues that under Mubarak’s rule, torture remained a state policy used against peasants, workers, students and citizens in general. Using the pretext of links to Islamists, the Mubarak regime sought to put down all dissent through imprisonment of political activists and the use of violence and torture. Furthermore, the state of emergency conveniently served the interests of powerful landlords and property developers who used the state police to violently evict peasants and tenants. Such widespread use of torture sanctioned by the state became a rallying point for the 25 January protests, which targeted their anger specifically towards the Egyptian police and then Minister of Interior Habib Al-Adly. It was no surprise, then, that right after the fall of Mubarak the much-feared secret police and intelligence services began burning evidence of widespread and systematic torture that could incriminate Mubarak-era political figures, including Mubarak himself. Anne Alexander, in her chapter entitled ‘Mubarak in the International Arena’, argues that Mubarak’s foreign policy was shaped in light of American interests in the region. While friendly relations with the US kept up a flow of aid and arms into Egypt, it also undermined Mubarak’s legitimacy in the eyes of the Egyptian public. The chapter discusses Egypt’s role in the Palestinian–Israeli conflict and in facilitating extraordinary renditions under America’s war on terror. The editors rightly diagnose the situation in Egypt in 2009 as ‘volatile’ and impregnated with the potential for ‘sweeping change’ (p.155). Indeed, as the events of 25 January 2011 confirm, neoliberal policies resulted in mobilising grassroots movements and groups who overthrew one of the longest-serving regimes in the region. The book could have benefited, however, from a chapter on the role of the military and its structural power within the Egyptian state and economy, especially given the dominant role that the military has assumed since the fall of Mubarak in shaping the outcome of the revolution. That said, the book still offers a great read to the general public and could be of valuable academic use for undergraduate students by providing a background analysis of the Egyptian revolution.

Reviews: Politics, Islam and Culture

The explosion of studies that aim to understand the nature and the goals, as well as the inner workings of Islamist movements has created a welcome research program across different disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, and political science. A comprehensive and interdisciplinary analysis of the complex interplay between Islamist movements and their local, national, and international surroundings give a better account of what is at stake for the members of these movements and how they adapt their practices to changing circumstances while still pursuing their ideational goals. It is by way of both contextualizing and historicizing these Islamist movements can one avoid overly generalized, and thus reductionist conclusions about the role of Islam in Muslim societies, and the hotly debated issues such as the compatibility between Islam and democracy. Berna Turam’s Between Islam and the State: The Politics of Engagement stands out as one of the best studies published in recent years that analyzes the complex interplay between the secular actors and Islamist actors in creating an environment conducive for political pluralism. By engaging in a highly commendable ethnographic research technique, Turam studies both the Islamic network of the Gulen movement and of the AKP [Justice and Development Party], and their interaction with the secular Republic actors. The end result is a fascinating, and a mostly objective story, of ‘a rising agreement, cooperation, and a growing sense of belonging between the secular state and Islamic actors (p. 7),’ which has inadvertently led to further liberalization of Turkish democracy. The book is about ‘the contemporary everyday settings that allowed Islamic actors and the state to interact and reshape each other (p. 9).’ It shows the extent of the increasing tolerance, if not full acceptance, that both the secular actors and the Islamist actors show toward each other within a short period of time (1994–2002 and onwards). Turam cleverly problematizes both the commonly referred arguments about a clash between the secularists and the Islamists and the overly naı̈ve views of political plurality and social and cultural diversity in Turkey. She analyzes ‘the demise of confrontation’ between the secular Republican actors and the Islamist actors in the Turkey context, which has ‘facilitated democratization not deliberately . . . but accidentally [emphases original] (p. 25)’. The unintended consequences of certain rationally calculated actions on the part of both the secular and the Islamist actors have paved the way for further democratization in Turkey. Although this reviewer is not convinced fully that the confrontation between the two sides came to an end as discussed below, Berna Turam has written a very important book that would provide a much needed accompaniment to other studies that have either too optimistically claimed the rise of ‘Muslim democracy’ British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, April 2009 36(1), 149–167