Why did Erdoğan’s Middle East policy miss goals?

Turkey is about to enter a new stage of politics with the presidency of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu as the next PM he preferred to see.

The pair highlighted Turkey’s name in international politics over the last few years more than ever, but not necessarily always in the best way.

Erdoğan’s foreign policy with the ideological framing of Davutoğlu has been based on reviving links with the Islamic world, not only for opening up new trade routes there but also to resume a new solidarity spirit, assuming an Ottoman nostalgia there.

The nostalgia was not everywhere but the spirit was high during the rise of the Arab Spring with the ideological and political rise of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in the “Greater Middle East” as the Americans like to call it. But when the fall of the Brotherhood-led rise came quickly, the influence of the Erdoğan-Davutoğlu couple was not as before.

Yes, the way that they carried out the foreign policy, especially the “West against Islam and Turkey” and “Precious loneliness” rhetoric brought points to Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), regardless of failing to fulfill all the foreign policy targets.

There are of course exterior factors to that result – global and regional factors – but there are interior factors, too.

Three key institutions for such ambitious targets lacked necessary capabilities. This is partly because of insufficient financial and human resources and partly because of the culture and perspective they have developed since Turkey joined the Western military alliance NATO and delegated almost all strategic thinking and decisions to that...