You are cordially invited to attend the virtual lecture titled Turkey and the West in the Aftermath of the Cold War by Professor Constantine Arvanitopoulos at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. Professor Arvanitopoulos's lecture will be taking place via Zoom on Thursday May 12, 2022 at 12 PM Central Time (US and Canada).
You can register in advance for the lecture here:
https://uchicago.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUocOqorzkoGtHVnGCq3x_TL2uxTK4cD46Y
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the lecture.
Abstract:
Over the last two decades relations between Turkey and the West have deteriorated.
Turkey has gradually distanced itself from the West, almost abandoning its foreign policy objective of becoming a member of the EU.
Relations with the US have also worsened over the last years. The rift between Turkey and the US is deeper and more serious than the occasional quarrels of the past, such as the “Johnson letter” incident in 1964, or the crisis over the “northern front” issue in the US war against Iraq in 2003.
The current rift is linked to Turkey’s perception that the post 1945 international order is disintegrating. In the new geopolitical landscape Turkey does not feel obligated to remain dependent upon, or integrated in, the West. It has developed its own regional hegemonic and, in some respects, revisionist aspirations, that often diverge from Western interests.
Its tolerance of Islamic extremism, its tense relations with Israel, Egypt and Greece, its deepening of relations with Russia, have posed serious challenges to US and European policy makers.
In the war in Ukraine Turkey tries to walk a tightrope between its formal alliances and its post-western policies by trying to assume the role of an “honest broker” in the conflict.
The war and the emerging new cold war, however, will present Turkey with difficult dilemmas and critical choices.
Biography:
Professor Constantine Arvanitopoulos holds the Karamanlis Chair of Hellenic and European Studies at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He is also Professor of International Relations at Panteion University, Athens and held in the past the following positions: Minister of Education; President of the European Council (level of Ministers of Education during Greece's Presidency of the EU, 1/1/2014-31/6/2014); Chair of the Department of International and European Studies, Panteion University (2006-2010); Member of the High Council of the European University Institute, Florence (2004-2009); Senior Research Associate, The Martens Center for European Studies; Post-doctoral fellow, at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University (1990-1992); Assistant Professor at the department of Public and International Affairs, George Mason University (1992-19950; written books on Transitions from Authoritarianism to Democracy, on Transatlantic Relations, on US Foreign Policy, on European Liberalism.