Turkey’s Asia Anew initiative
The Limits of Middle Power Activism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7172137 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Çağdaş Üngör (0000-0002-9607-6178, Marmara University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 429-445 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Third World Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0143-6597 • E-ISSN: 1360-2241 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01436597.2025.2478558 |
| OpenAlex | W4409037253 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 33 |
Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi or AKP) is often labelled an emerging middle power, with a growing role and influence in world affairs. The Middle East and North Africa have been particularly important in showcasing Turkey’s rising diplomatic and economic clout during the twenty-first century. This article evaluates the extent of Turkey’s middle power activism in the Asia-Pacific region under the country’s recently launched Asia Anew (Yeniden Asya) initiative. Based on an examination of official documents, state-level contacts and trade statistics, the study argues that the Asia Anew initiative failed to bring substantial results in stretching Turkey’s influence to East and Southeast Asia during its four years of implementation (2019–2023). Turkey’s Asia Anew initiative was plagued by several setbacks, including the foreign ministry’s ambiguous policymaking, as well as Turkey’s limited economic leverage and soft power appeal in the Asia-Pacific region. Having remained a rhetorical tool, Ankara’s own Asia pivot demonstrates the limitations of Turkey’s middle power activism in the twenty-first century
Ancient history · Development economics · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Foreign policy · Middle power · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · South asia · Third world · History · International Development and Aid · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Political Conflict and Governance
The Evolution of Turkey’s Asia Policy in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Turkey’s own “pivot to Asia”
Assessing the Diffusion of Military Power Capacity of Middle Powers
An Assessment of Turkey’s Soft Power Resources in Asia
Foreign aid during the Covid-19 pandemic
Emerging partnership in a post-Western world? The political economy of China-Turkey relations
Use/misuse of Chinese BRI investment? BRI-related crony capitalism in Turkey
Turkey’s Grand Strategy and the Great Powers
Exploring the Traits of a Grand Strategy for Turkey
Asia Anew Initiative
Ideas and Change in Foreign Policy Instruments
The Turkish government scholarship program as a soft power tool
The Transformation of the Geopolitical Vision in Turkish Foreign Policy
Turkey as a restrained middle power
Making Sense of Turkey's Rising Power Status
Middle-power definitions
The dynamics of emerging middle-power influence in regional and global governance
Reassessing Turkey’s Soft Power
Turkey's Strategic Vision and Syria
Turkish foreign policy under Erdogan
Understanding oscillations in Turkish foreign policy
Unusual middle power activism and regime survival
History teaching as a nation-building tool in the early republican period in Turkey (1923–1938)
Authoritarian diffusion or cooperation? Turkey’s emerging engagement with China
The concept of a middle power in international relations
Determinants of Turkey’s foreign aid behavior
Status-seeking policies of middle powers in status clubs
The Evolution of 'Eurasia' as a Geopolitical Concept in Post-Cold War Turkey
Authoritarian middle powers and the liberal order
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |