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Evaluations of Turkish foreign policy have drastically changed over the past few years. The new policy of the incoming AK Party government had been almost unanimously applauded as a "paradigm change" from a "post-cold war warrior" or a "regional coercive power" into a "benign", if not "soft" power, or as the (albeit incomplete) change from "securitized nationalism" to "desecuritised liberalism." However, further analysis of the more recent Turkish foreign policy finds very divergent evaluations. Some authors within Turkey have described it as an unfolding of policy principles, whereas other studies have debated whether Turkey has become a "normative power" or could join the BRIC states. In contrast, European and American observers' criticisms of Turkey's "over-confidence" have turned into verdicts that "Turkey's plan to be a standalone power in the region is nowhere near fruition."6 Some pundits have gone as far as to claim that Turkey's "foreign policy is falling apart victim to Mr. Erdoğan's hubris."
This paper will argue that Turkish foreign policy has in fact changed in relation to the basic parameters of foreign policy role concepts. Thus, this essay will try to "make sense" of the changes in Turkish foreign policy by interpreting it as the quest for a new foreign policy role once the incoming AK Party government abandoned the "traditional republican foreign policy" which had characterized most of Turkey's history and has aptly been described as a "defensive nationalism." In contrast, the AK Party government began with a foreign policy approach that strongly prioritized cooperation, expressed in the often quoted "no problem-with neighbors" principle, and aimed at rechanneling national aspirations from security concerns to economic prosperity and international trade. In addition, it strongly supported international organizations and prioritized Turkey's integration into the supranational structures of the EU.
The shift towards a "regional project" - first by using visa exemptions and free trade arrangements and later also by taking sides in the domestic conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Egypt - and towards the emphasis on multiple (including military) resources of power and the ambition to act as a representative of a group of (Muslim) states in international organizations display the characteristics of a regional power. As a foreign policy analyst put it, "the AK Party envisioned Turkey as the area's Brazil, a rising economic power with a burning desire to shape regional events." The most visible and explicit change in Turkey's foreign policy role has been from its prior aim to be "a bridge between EU and the Islamic world" to the more recent aim to "be the owner, pioneer and servant of the new Middle East.