Today, Turkey and Israel are significant actors in the international arena, especially their influence on the processes taking place in the Middle East. General global trends, particularly globalization, have influenced the foreign policy of these two countries in recent years. The latter manifests itself by the fact that there is an immediate reaction of the world community to any event, including local, in any country, as well as a general national, religious, and cultural-civilizational mixing of the modern world. These and many other factors make the study of the foreign and defense policy of Israel and Turkey quite relevant.
This report aims to explore the characteristics and trends of earlier mentioned in international relations and to analyze the peculiarities of interaction with neighboring countries and the existing problems in them. Within the framework of this paper, such basic concepts as the foreign and defensive policy will also be considered. Based on the studied material, a conclusion will be made about the main trends in the international activities of Israel and Turkey, and recommendations will be made on possible ways to solve existing problems.
Foreign policy is traditionally understood as the activity of official representatives who have received or appropriated the right to express and defend national interests in the international arena on behalf of the entire people. Defense policy is an integral part of the general policy of the state, aimed at the creation and operation of military organization, preparation, and application of violent means to achieve political goals. This leads to constantly changing foreign policy priorities for the country’s leadership and the emergence of contradictory models of behavior in different situations.
Recently, the Turkish factor has played an important role in almost all issues in the international arena, especially in the context of the processes taking place in the Middle East. Until recently, Turkey’s role as a global and regional force seemed to be insignificant because of internal weaknesses and political and historical legacies1. Over the past decade, the foreign policy of the Republic of Turkey has changed dramatically. It wants to play a stronger role in the international arena and increase its influence in global politics The desire to integrate with the EU, one of the main goals of Turkey’s foreign policy for many years, has faded into the background. In this regard, the point of view that it is necessary to strengthen the country’s credibility has spread. The Turkish leadership is trying to position Turkey as a certain progressive model of development, especially in the countries with Arab and Turkic populations.
As for Israel, several fundamental factors have shaped its foreign and defense policy. First, there has been a fundamental change in the country’s economic situation: the transition from quantity to quality, with economic development accompanied by a permanent internal political crisis, as well as the crisis of national institutions and the national ideology of Zionism Amid all these conditions, Israel’s foreign and defense policy toward neighboring countries is complicated and multi-vector. Experts believe there are some stable and active alliances of countries of interest, which do not fit into the usual political logic but, in fact, work very well2. The beginning of one such alliance was the gradual rapprochement of two outwardly hostile states – Israel and Saudi Arabia. For all the differences in religious, cultural, political, and geographic regional interests of these states have emerged a coincidence of strategic objectives. Israel has started talking about the need in new alliances, not only with the Saudis but also with the Gulf states, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Jordan, and Egypt.
On a conceptual level, it is possible to assess the foreign policies of Israel and Turkey by comparison. Due to a number of existing crises, Israel has a more active military policy, with the most action taking place in building alliances in the Middle East to confront a common adversary – Iran. Turkish policy, on the other hand, in recent years has lacked a focus on a specific region and considers the spread of influence not only among the countries of the Islamic world but also among northwestern countries.
The strategic solution to the key issues of Israel’s defense and foreign policy is seen by many scholars as continuing the progressive development of relations with the countries of the Persian Gulf. At the same time, foreign policy must be implemented in parallel with the resolution of internal crises, especially those related to the ideological factor, since it is the latter that determines Israel’s actions with respect to neighboring countries. The strategic solution for Turkey is to continue building relations with non-Islamic countries.
The current trends in the policies of the countries under study determine the need for an active academic study of their prospects in the international arena, as well as a more in-depth analysis of large-scale factors. The key recommendation in the organization of international activities of Israel and Turkey is to take into account globalization as a serious factor in any international relations, as well as to take notice of the activities of Western countries to spread their values among the countries of the Middle East.
Thus, the analysis of the peculiarities of the foreign and defense policies of Turkey and Israel has shown that these countries have different perspectives of action in the international arena. For Israel, the key task is to resolve existing conflicts with neighboring countries, while for Turkey, the most important direction is mediation in the interaction between the Islamic world and Western countries.
References
Bialer, Uri. Israeli Foreign Policy: A People Shall Not Dwell Alone. Bloomington, USA : Indiana University Press, 2020.
Tufekci, Ozgur. Foreign Policy of Modern Turkey: Power and the Ideology of Eurasianism, IB: TAURIS, 2019.
Footnotes
- 1 Ozgur Tufekci, Foreign Policy of Modern Turkey: Power and the Ideology of Eurasianism (I B TAURIS, 2019), 32.
- 2 Uri Bialer, Israeli Foreign Policy: A People Shall Not Dwell Alone (Bloomington, IN, USA : Indiana University Press, 2020), 28.