Re-evaluating Turkey’s global relationships and its shift toward the South-East Asian region

Turkey is strategically positioned at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and is considered an important geopolitical actor in the global arena. Since Turkey embraced neoliberal economic policies in the 1980s, it has emerged as one of the leading emerging economies with major trade links with the US, Russia, EU, and Asia. Turkey has been a longstanding member of the NATO alliance and signed the European Customs Union Agreement in 1995. With the advent of Asia as the global economic powerhouse, Turkey’s foreign and economic policy horizons today extend to the Asia-Pacific Region. Turkey plays a key role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative and with the launching of the Asia Anew Initiative in late 2019, Ankara has redoubled efforts to forge closer ties with the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and with ASEAN itself. This paper will explore and evaluate Turkey’s foreign policy over the last two decades and the shift from the principle of Strategic Depth to that of Strategic Autonomy. The article will also review Turkey’s current change in international orientation and its international re-orientation toward Asia

Connecting the Dots: The Washington Consensus and the ‘Arab Spring’

This paper investigates the socio-economic causes that have led to the recent political instability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The MENA region is characterized as one which holds massive hydrocarbon resources and yet suffers from low economic growth and development and high levels of unemployment. This paper shows that the Arab uprisings are linked to the inequalities created by the opening up of the Arab countries to foreign capital and financial agencies, a project that is commonly referred to as the Washington Consensus. This neo-liberal globalization programme has been highly diverse in its effectiveness throughout the MENA region. However, the state still remains the dominant economic player in this region and the Arab population still regards it as the primary provider. The state has been able to hold on to its power by limiting the role of private enterprise and also by maintaining an exclusive nexus between itself and the few prominent private sector companies. Although the wave of disillusionment and frustration amongst the Arab youth washed over the entire region with the same passion and propensity, the reaction of individual governments has been very varied. The future of the region lies in how effectively and efficiently the interim or newly elected governments are able to move their country beyond the pincers of, on the one hand, the Washington Consensus and, on the other, the old, state-centric and inefficient developmental regime

Empirical Analysis of an Augmented Schumpeterian Endogenous Growth Model

This study conducts an empirical analysis of an augmented Schumpeterian endogenous growth theory using aggregate-level data from 1981 to 2017 for 31 OECD countries. Despite a considerable number of studies analysing endogenous growth, cross-country analyses utilising estimators robust to endogeneity-bias and controlling for the macroeconomic effect of institutions are still rare. In this paper, we employ a relatively consistent estimator to analyse an augmented neoclassical production function that links output per worker to capital accumulation, technological progress, and institutions. Our results from the extended system of generalised method of momentS estimation align with the mainstream consensus that capital accumulation and technological progress or innovation, in the form of R&D activities, determine the level of output per worker in the long run. But in addition, we find that effective institutions underlie the innovation effect. On average, the impact of R&D activities on output per worker is higher in countries with more effective institutions

Does Increasing Product Complexity and Diversity Cause Economic Growth in the Long-Run? A GMM Panel VAR Evidence

Using aggregate data from 31 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries covering periods from 1982 to 2017, this study examines the notion that the level of product complexity is a good determinant of economic growth in the long run. We use the impulse-response function (IRF) computed from the consistent generalized method of moment panel vector autoregressive (GMM pVAR) model to estimate the response of the real output growth to a change in the economic complexity index. The IRF shows that the economic complexity index has a significant impact on economic growth; a 1 standard deviation shock to the economic complexity index at time 0 contributes around 2.34 percentage points to the average rate of growth of output within the first period. The point estimates are positive and significant up to the third period. The cumulative IRF shows that the aggregate impact on economic growth is about 4.4% in the long run. Compared to some widely used innovation proxies such as the gross expenditure on research and development and secondary school enrollment, the economic complexity index performs relatively better in our model in determining economic growth in the long run

Electronic Structures, Born Effective Charges and Spontaneous Polarization in Magnetoelectric Gallium Ferrite

We present a theoretical study of the structure-property correlation in gallium ferrite, based on the first principles calculations followed by a subsequent comparison with the experiments. Local spin density approximation (LSDA+U) of the density functional theory has been used to calculate the ground state structure, electronic band structure, density of states and Born effective charges. Calculations reveal that the ground state structure is orthorhombic Pc21n having A-type antiferromagnetic spin configuration, with lattice parameters matching well with those obtained experimentally. Plots of partial density of states of constituent ions exhibit noticeable hybridization of Fe 3d, Ga 4s, Ga 4p and O 2p states. However, the calculated charge density and electron localization function show largely ionic character of the Ga/Fe-O bonds which is also supported by lack of any significant anomaly in the calculated Born effective charges with respect to the corresponding nominal ionic charges. The calculations show a spontaneous polarization of ~ 59 microC/cm^2 along b-axis which is largely due to asymmetrically placed Ga1, Fe1, O1, O2 and O6 ions.Comment: Total 21 pages including 3 tables and 6 figure