CIAO DATE: 02/2009
Volume: 11, Issue: 3
September 2009
Can Islam and Modernity be Reconciled?
Shireen T. Hunter
Is Islam particularly inimical to modernity, and the two are never to be reconciled? Many westerners and Muslims alike would argue that this is the case. Yet the more pertinent question; is religion in general and modernity incompatible and irreconcilable? There is a basic tension between all religions which rely on revelation as the primary source of knowledge and on God as the source of law and ethics, and modernity which privileges reason as the main source of knowledge and posits the source of law and ethics in human beings. An objective and unbiased reading of Islam shows that it is no more inimical to modernity than any other religion. Rather some of its aspects, including its emphasis on the importance of reason, its injunction that there is no compulsion in faith, and its frequent reference to people and their rights makes a reconciliation between Islam and modernity possible.
Iran's Presidential Election: The Failure of Managed Functionalism
Güneş Murat Tezcür
Iran's elections have historically managed factional conflict without altering the institutional distribution of power. Against this political background, the June 2009 elections stand out as a unique event. Elections that once served to manage conflict have now become a destabilizing factor. While the regime appears to have forcefully silenced the widespread post-election protests, the 2009 uprising shows the new limits of elections in managing factional conflict, which spread out to include Iran's people. The regime grossly miscalculated not just the effects of massive public participation in the 2009 elections, but also the buildup of widespread grievances among a substantial section of Iran's citizens. The protests have aggravated the ruling elite's fear of a "velvet revolution" instigated by the West. Consequently, post-election negotiations between Iran and the Western powers regarding Iran's nuclear program are likely to meet significant obstacles, since recent events have further diminished confidence between Iran and its antagonists.
Black Turks, White Turks: On the Three Requirements of Turkish Citizenship
Mücahit Bilici
Turkish media frequently employ the term "White Turks" to describe the Turkish cultural elite. Although Turks are unfamiliar with American-style racial divides, the terms "black" and "white" are widely used to colorcode inequalities in Turkey. The common tendency to distinguish White Turks from Black Turks on the basis of wealth, however, fails to uncover the historical and cultural dynamics that gave rise to these two groups. This essay not only offers a necessary clarification of this popular heuristic device but also proposes a perspective for understanding the current standoff in Turkish politics between the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) and the secular establishment, with their distinct value systems and competing claims to modernity.
Armenian-Turkish Rapprochement: Timing Matters
Alexander Iskandaryan
The Road Map to normalization of bilateral Armenian-Turkish relations announced in April 2009 has not yet been made public, and a slowdown is evident in the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement. Turkey's strategy involves working to mitigate Azerbaijan's resentment against potential Armenian-Turkish normalization by tying its progress to the resolution of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh in a way that suits Azerbaijan. As a result, however, Armenian society is becoming increasingly apprehensive of the entire Armenian-Turkish dialogue. Tying rapprochement to the conflict makes sense from a zero-sum-game perspective but risks jeopardizing the entire process, as the formats and stakeholders are too different. Timing is the key factor now: political actors and societies are becoming frustrated and are no longer certain that the project of rapprochement has a future. Should no definite step towards normalization be made by autumn 2009, public frustration may overwhelm the project and mutual relations may end up worse than they were prior to the start of football diplomacy.
The Alliance of Civilizations: A Spanish View
Máximo Cajal
In the foreseeable future, the international system will become one of multipolarity. This new order can be sustainable and peaceful only if it can guarantee harmony and a common purpose among nations. To that end, it must be based upon a package of ethical principles under the aegis of a more powerful, democratic and efficient United Nations system. These principles - democracy, multilateralism, full compliance with international law and respect for human rights - are the same moral rules that underpin the Alliance of Civilizations project as initiated by Spain and Turkey. It was a consequence of the awareness that something new had to be done to prevent a potential confrontation between two worlds, two mindsets. There was, and still is, a danger of a further drift between Islamic and Western societies that might threaten international peace and stability.
Turkey and the Alliance of Civilizations: Norm Adoption as a Survival Strategy
Ramazan Kılınç
his article asks why Turkey recently adopted the emerging international norm of inter-civilizational dialogue as one of its foreign policy priorities. In addressing this question, we turn first to an assessment of the limitations of normative and realist arguments, then suggest that the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) considerations of domestic political survival were necessary factors in the adoption of intercivilizational dialogue, even though in and of themselves, they were not sufficient. The AK Party government, circumscribed by the secularist establishment, strategically adopted the norm of inter-civilizational dialogue to create a legitimate space for its survival in Turkey's domestic political sphere. This conclusion stems from the theoretical finding that in those states in which political power is not concentrated in the government, the domestic political considerations of the government gain priority in foreign policymaking.
The Alliance of Civilizations: Possibilities of Conflict Resolution at the Civilizational Level
Talha Köse
This study examines the possible contributions of the critical perspectives and conceptual frameworks of the Conflict Resolution field to address "civilizational level" conflicts. The possibilities and limitations of dialogue processes at the civilizational level are critically examined. While recognizing the main assumptions and contributions of dialogue processes to deal with cultural/civilizational conflicts, this study puts forward an alternative and more practical vision: that of creating Spheres of Dialogic Interaction (SODI). In the second part of the study, the social and political backgrounds, practical contributions, and limitations of two recent projects the "Dialogue among Civilizations" (DaC) and the "Alliance of Civilizations" (AoC) are analyzed. It is argued that with its action-oriented agenda and the practical environment conducive to flexible, interactive and reflexive interaction, the ongoing AoC project is an important venue for creating SODI.
The Alliance of Civilizations: The Poverty of the Clash/Alliance Dichotomy?
Ali Balcı
The Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) initiative emerged from debates around the "clash of civilizations." Based on this I will argue that the "alliance" notion is an integral part of the clash of civilizations thesis. Thereby, clash and alliance together form a mutually constituting "dichotomy," which I will call "the clash/alliance dichotomy." In the first part of the article, I will give a brief summary of the emergence and expansion of the "clash of civilizationns" myth. The second part seeks to underline important attempts to "de-mythize" the clash of civilizations thesis. Later, I will show how the "dialogue" notion emerged as a response to the clashbased ideas and how it became a complementary part of "the clash/ alliance dichotomy". In the last part, I will focus on the problems of the AoC that stems from the fact that it emerged as a "reactionary entity."
The European Union and Political Cleavages in Turkey
Paul Kubicek
This article examines how the Turks' views of the European Union align with notions of a center-periphery cleavage in Turkish politics. Traditionally, pro-European views have been associated with the more prosperous, better-educated "center," whereas the rural, less educated and more religious Turks of the "periphery" have been less supportive of aspects of Europeanization. Examination of 2002 survey data finds that more religious voters were less supportive of the EU. However, analysis from a similar survey done in 2006 finds the religious factor to be insignificant whereas education, typically associated with the "center," is now related to negative feelings toward the EU. This turnabout is reflected as well in the positions of Turkey's two major parties and can be attributed to how each side of this cleavage views the benefits of closer ties to the EU.
The Davutoğlu Era in Turkish Foreign Policy
Bülent Aras
Ahmet Davutoğlu was appointed Turkish foreign minister on May 1, 2009. Chief advisor to the Turkish prime minister since 2002, Davutoglu is known as the intellectual architect of Turkish foreign policy under the AK Party. He articulated a novel foreign policy vision and succeeded, to a considerable extent, in changing the rhetoric and practice of Turkish foreign policy. Turkey's new dynamic and multidimensional foreign policy line is visible on the ground, most notably to date in the country's numerous and significant efforts to address chronic problems in neighboring regions. Davutoğlu's duty will now shift from the intellectual design of policies to greater actual involvement in foreign policy as he undertakes his new responsibilities as minister of foreign affairs. The Davutoğlu era in Turkish foreign policy will deepen Turkey's involvement in regional politics, international organizations, and world politics.
Turkey and the Middle East in the 'New Era' (PDF)
William Hale
Barack Obama's inauguration as America's new president has been welcomed as opening a ‘new era' in Turkey's relations with the United States. May 2009 also saw the appointment of a new foreign minister in Ankara, in the person of Professor Ahmet Davutoğlu. This article examines how these new directions are playing out in the Middle East, one of the world's most turbulent regions which also has crucial economic and strategic importance for Turkey. It focuses on Turkey's relations with four regional states - Iraq, Israel/ Palestine, Syria and Iran. The article closes by assessing whether Turkey has been able to achieve the government's ambition of ‘zero problems' with its neighbors, and the degree to which it has been able to develop a new role as conciliator and go-between in addressing the region's bitter conflicts.
Turkey's Emerging Role as a Mediator on Iran's Nuclear Activities
Rahman G. Bonab
The international community is worried about the security implications of Iran's nuclear activities. Although it has been argued that Iran is very close to make a nuclear bomb, the results of the latest official reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and some American intelligence institutions demonstrate that Iran is not reluctant to consider the concerns of the international community in its decisions. One of the main policies of great powers is to cooperate with regional actors, like Turkey, to persuade Iran to be more flexible in its nuclear policy and particularly in its uranium enrichment activity. The historical mistrust between Iran and the great powers reinforces the necessity of having other regional actors act as mediators and countries like Turkey can play an important role in this context. The governing AKP's mediation policy in the regional level is a catalyst to Turkey's attempts to mediate between Iran and the 5+1 Group, although mediation can have its own difficulties.
The Caucasus: Which Role for Turkey in the European Neighborhood?
Deniz Devrim, Evelina Schulz
The Turkish proposal of a Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform (CSCP), and its impact on existing EU initiatives covering the same region, represents a challenge for the future shape of the European neighborhood. This article analyzes the evolution of the CSCP since its launch in summer 2008 until now and presents the platform's approach and main ideas. A core question will be whether the Turkish proposal will be complementary to or in competition with other European initiatives such as the Eastern Partnership or the Black Sea Synergy. Different stakeholders' perceptions of the CSCP will also be outlined. Finally, an outlook will be given which will explore Turkey's role for the stability at the EU's south-eastern borders as well as its impact for the European Neighborhood Policy.
Sultan Tepe, Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey
Ani Sarkissian
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008, 413 pp., ISBN 9780804758642.
İhsan Dağı, Turkey between Democracy and Militarism: Post Kemalist Perspectives
Nezir Akyeşilmen
Ankara: Orion Publications, 2008, 301 pp., ISBN 978-9944-769-19-8.
Ruth Mandel, Cosmopolitan Anxieties: Turkish Challenges to Citizenship and Belonging in Germany
Ayhan Kaya
Durham and London: Duke University Pres, 2008, 415 pp., ISBN-10: 082234193X.
Umut Özkırımlı and Spyros A. Sofos, Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey
Bilgen Sütçüoğlu
London: Hurst & Company, 2008, 220 pp., ISBN 9781850658993.
John Garrard and Carol Garrard, Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent: Faith and Power in the New Russia
Norman Stone
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, 348 pp., ISBN 978-0-691-12573-2.
Roxanne L. Euben, Journeys to the Other Shore: Muslim and Western Travelers in Search of Knowledge
Nabil Matar
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006, 328 pp., ISBN 978-1-4008-2749-7.
Kasra Naji, Ahmadinejad: The Secret History of Iran's Radical Leader
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
California, University of California Press, 2008, 298 pp., ISBN: 978-0-520-25663-7.