Global governance

Russia’s policy in the Middle East is geared strictly to the country’s interests: to fulfil its role as a major power, stabilise the region and minimise every risk as much as possible. This offers opportunities.

Donald Trump is caught in a deadlock of his own making. He does not want to find himself responsible for a new war in the Middle East right in the middle of an election campaign. At the same time, he wants to look like a tough guy who never backtracks. This is what is making the situation so unpredictable.

The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs has appealed to the US and Iran to avoid escalation in the Persian Gulf region. The EU must continue to do everything within its power to save the nuclear deal.

A closer look at the automotive industry would help us to understand the possible impacts of the global trade wars on Turkey.

Many of us are happy about the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Football has the power to unite people, and thousands of international visitors are coming into Russia and bringing open-mindedness and vibrancy to a country that has recently been seen as on the road toward isolation. We would like to use the World Cup as a chance to provide you with more information about Russia. The Moscow office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation has prepared a series of texts and video materials on various topics relevant to Russia that are going to be published in the coming weeks.   

A study commissioned by the Heinrich Böll Foundation found that the OECD's infrastructure investment advice to the G20 finance track lacks coherence with sustainable development and is “out of sync” with recent achievements of the global community.

Relations between Russia and Turkey had been very positive until November 26, 2015. Despite being a member of the NATO, which is synonymous with the devil in Russia, Turkey had started to be perceived as a part of the same anti-Western front under the rule of Erdoğan, who had previously served first as prime minister and is currently its president.

The path dependency of Turkey has increased and the alternatives have diminished. Furthermore, the foreign policy has lost its strategical quality, depth and maneuverability in the turbulence created by the ideological and domestically biased political decisions, which are compounded due to the Syrian issue. It seems that after all these interventions, Turkey has become a passive rather than an active player, although it continues to be a party to the discussions thanks to its geopolitical importance.

Iraq has been at the top of the list of Middle Eastern nations torn apart by violent wars for many years. In 2014, the conflict engulfed Iraqi Kurdistan, one of the region's more stable areas. The unremitting battles and conflicts in Iraq made headlines on the first day of 2014, when the police of the Shiite Maliki government organized a bloody raid to the home of the Sunnite MP Ahmed al-Alwani. 

The question of whether or not the foreign policy pursued during the AKP (Justice and Democracy Party) era signifies rupture has long been debated. Particularly in the aftermath of the Mavi Marmara incident,  many have sought to give an answer to the question if there has been an ‘axis shift’ in Turkish foreign policy.