Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa under the AKP: an empirical analysis

ABSTRACT Turkish foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been the subject of much change, especially as regards relations with the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). We create and analyze a novel dataset of Turkey’s treaties with MENA countries to offer and assess several arguments empirically. We find that Turkey became more diplomatically active in the MENA and emerged as a ‘trading state’ in the AKP’s first decade. In the wake of the Arab Uprisings, especially after 2016, Turkey became less diplomatically active and more security oriented. However, it did not necessarily lose all of the characteristics of a ‘trading state.’