U.S. Foreign Policy Archives

‘Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You’re gonna love it.’

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On November 24, 2019

Last week, once again since 2004 there were rumors about a potential reunion of the characters from the TV show “Friends” to produce a show together. This it seemed more serious than before as it seemed the characters had agreed […]

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World crises at climax: Bad news for our future

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On March 4, 2019

In one of the most memorable comedies of Turkish cinema, “G.O.R.A.,” one character’s line has since become a hallmark of Turkish popular culture. In this Cem Yılmaz science-fiction-comedy, this character emerges randomly in different scenes and warns the main characters, […]

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Turkey-US relations in the new global order

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On February 26, 2019

Over the last two weeks, I’ve written in this column that based on the most significant strategic documents and threat assessment reports, the United States is adopting a new foreign policy based on updated geopolitical and geo-economic factors in the […]

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A reshuffling of the liberal world order

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On February 18, 2019

In my previous column, I mentioned how, in three different, but very important, documents on U.S. national security, namely the National Security Strategy (NSS), National Defense Strategy and Worldwide Threat Assessment reports, there is a strong emphasis on the return […]

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The end of optimism in US foreign policy

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On February 18, 2019

There are many different debates and discussions on the direction of U.S. foreign policy among scholars and practitioners of international relations today. In most of these debates the general idea is on the unpredictability of U.S. policy, absence of U.S. […]

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Asia pivot shapes US foreign policy

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On February 11, 2019

It was in October 2011 that then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote an op-ed in Foreign Policy Magazine describing the orientation of the new U.S. foreign policy. The article basically stated that the U.S. lost time for almost a […]

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Foreign policy elites and public opinion in US

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On February 11, 2019

A group of Venezuelans stage a protest in support of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in front of White House in Washington, United States on January 24, 2019.

It has been years now that observers of U.S. foreign policy, scholars of international relations and concerned allies of the U.S. have been asking similar questions in regards to the direction Washington is going. In every conversation, U.S. foreign policy […]

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Another Bumpy Week in US-Turkey Relations

Kadir Ustun Posted On January 15, 2019

Another Bumpy Week in US-Turkey Relations

President Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton’s visit to Ankara ended up causing more controversy than creating a common ground to work toward a serious strategy. In a previous column, I had warned that “if the U.S. tries to impose conditions […]

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Bolton’s Ankara visit can change Washington’s image in Syria

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On January 8, 2019

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton will visit Turkey today with the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, and the U.S. envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey. Late last week in a tweet, Bolton announced the purpose […]

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The US exit strategy from Iraq to Syria

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On January 2, 2019

In 2005, during a visit to troops in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld reportedly said, “We don’t have an exit strategy, we have a victory strategy.” The true meaning of this statement and its potential repercussions for the […]

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Checks and balances in world politics

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On December 17, 2018

It is a rather challenging time for observers of international politics to keep up with the developments in world politics. Those who focus on great power rivalry nowadays are trying to make sense of what is taking place among the […]

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Saudis cause major challenge for Trump in Congress

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On December 10, 2018

It was a rather difficult week for U.S. President Donald Trump. Domestically, the Mueller investigation and the recent court filings of the Special Counsel on Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort revealed a more complicated picture of the relations between some […]

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Russia-US relations after the G20 summit

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On December 3, 2018

This weekend in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the leaders of the G20 countries will convene to discuss important issues related to the economy, trade and security around the world. Prior to the beginning of the summit, many analysts were prepared to […]

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The wind of new unilateral politics in the US

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On November 27, 2018

Since the beginning of the debates on the transformation of the international system there have been different questions in regards to the future of the world order – if there is one. In this period, on the one hand, the […]

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Trump and the New House (of Cards)

Kadir Ustun Posted On November 14, 2018

The last season of the much-acclaimed House of Cards features the story of the first woman American president Claire Underwood (Hale). The storyline is quite a bit of a commentary on the current debates in U.S. politics, women’s participation in […]

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Trump to face pressure from Democrats in the new House

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On November 12, 2018

Trump to face pressure from Democrats in the new House

This time the pollsters in the U.S. did not fail to accurately predict the major outcome of the elections. After the traumatic failure in the 2016 presidential elections, many were focusing on the midterm elections to test the accuracy of […]

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US needs more than fictional heroes to halt decline

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On November 5, 2018

In the last days of the campaign season for the midterm elections, attention was suddenly drawn to a foreign policy issue. Interestingly, what made many in America and the international community shift their attention to the Iran sanctions was not […]

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Disharmony in US foreign policy strategies

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On October 22, 2018

Disharmony in US foreign policy strategies

Almost every foreign policy crisis in the United States in the last few years has shown the difficulty of responding due to the lack of a strategy or coordination. During the tension and negotiations with North Korea we saw that […]

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Missing journalist changes the narrative on Saudi Arabia

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On October 22, 2018

Missing journalist changes the narrative on Saudi Arabia

More than two weeks have passed since news broke of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The gruesome details that were reported about the fate of Khashoggi shocked many people around the […]

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Syria and US credibility

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On October 15, 2018

The U.S. policy on Syria over the last seven years has been nothing short of an enigma. In fact, we have constantly debated whether it actually had a policy on the Syrian civil war. The Obama administration’s lack of strategy […]

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The Shifting U.S. Policy on Syria

SETA Foundation Posted On October 11, 2018

The SETA Foundation at Washington D.C. hosted an event on October 11, 2018 titled “The Shifting U.S. Policy on Syria.” The event discussed the recent signaling of U.S. officials that the U.S. is shifting its policy in Syria to counter […]

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Opinion / Recent / US-Turkey Relations

What are the Implications of America’s New Syria Policy for Turkey?

Kadir Ustun Posted On October 10, 2018

What are the Implications of America’s New Syria Policy for Turkey?

The disagreement over the control and status of the Syrian town of Manbij has been a symbol of the strategic differences between the U.S. and Turkey’s Syria policies for a while now. Turkey’s successful military operation in Afrin led to […]

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Looking for solutions to global conflicts

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On October 8, 2018

Given how the international system is unfolding of late, there are an increasing number of questions about how to resolve some of the existing and future global problems. From the refugee crisis, the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, the humanitarian […]

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The Shifting U.S. Policy on Syria

SETA Foundation Posted On October 5, 2018

Thursday, October 11 12:30pm – 2:00pm The U.S. is signaling that its Syrian policy is shifting, despite inconsistencies within the administration. Ambassador James Jeffrey, U.S. Special Envoy to Syria, has stated that the U.S. will remain in Syria to ensure […]

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Towards a New International System Without US Leadership

Kadir Ustun Posted On October 2, 2018

Towards a New International System Without US Leadership

There has been a lot of debate about the current U.S. unwillingness to lead the liberal international order it created after World War II. The Obama administration already displayed signs of war weariness, which often translated into no action in […]

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US’ Asia pivot and changing relations

Kilic Bugra Kanat Posted On September 26, 2018

In the last two weeks, there were two important developments in regards to U.S.-China relations that generated concerns about the future trajectory of bilateral ties of the two largest economies. Once some analysts considered relations between these two countries as […]

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