A rival or an awkward partner? Turkey’s relationship with the West in the Balkans

Abstract

In the 2000 and 2010s, Turkey embarked on an activist policy in Southeast Europe reliant on personal diplomacy, economic outreach, and the projection of soft power. Coupled with the drift away from the West, such overtures have prompted observers to qualify Turkey as a revisionist power similar to Russia, China and other non-Western actors making inroads into the region. This article seeks to correct this view. It argues that Turkey is not an external player but very much part of the Balkans. Secondly, the article contends that Turkish foreign policy is not posing a frontal challenge to the EU and NATO, the two anchors of regional order. Rather, it benefits from its close relationship and membership in the two institutions. Though it has shifted from multilateralism to unilateralism, Ankara pursues a parallel, as opposed to an adversarial, strategy to that of the West.