FOREWORD

by Murat Bilhan, Ambassador Editor

THE MALAISE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

SALAHI R. SONYEL
Salahi R. Sonyel is visiting Professor of International Relations at Near East University, The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

INTRODUCTION
Since the publication of my paper entitled ‘The European Union and the Cyprus Imbroglio' in the Perceptions, June-August 1998,1 the problems facing the European Union have become more acute and are now described as a ‘malaise' by numerous well-informed researchers and analysts. In this paper I shall reflect and analyse some of their views.

ISLAMIC MOVEMENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: EGYPT AS A CASE STUDY

ÖZLEM TÜR KAVLI
Özlem Tür Kavli is a Research Assistant at the Department of International Relations, Middle East Technical University, Ankara and a PhD candidate at the Centre for Middle East and Islamic Studies, University of Durham, United Kingdom.

The Islamic challenge remains a central issue within the ongoing debate on the nature of Middle East politics. As the main opposition to government policies, the Islamic movements enjoy widespread popularity, especially among the lower echelons of those populations —people who are economically or politically alienated.

THE POLITICS OF CASPIAN REGION ENERGY RESOURCES: A CHALLENGE FOR TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY

SEBNEM UDUM 
Sebnem Udum is a MAIPS candidate 2001 at Graduate School of International Policy Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA. 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Following the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Caspian region, with its rich hydrocarbon reserves, assumed great significance in the energy politics of the regional states and the global actors. Coupled with the landlocked nature of the Caspian region, the development of trans-national export pipelines to transport oil and gas from the Caspian caused competition both between companies over the contracts and between states over the final export routes.

SOME FEATURES OF RUSSIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS IN THE 1990s

VLADIMIR I. DANILOV
Dr Vladimir I. Danilov is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.

At the beginning of perestroyka, I heard from one senior official in the Soviet Foreign Office: “We have no problem with Turkey.”

This was the result of both sides' efforts. In the 1960s, Turkey understood the necessity of changing its one-sided orientation to the USA and NATO into multifaceted policies of normalisation of relations with the Afro-Asian world and its neighbours, including the USSR.

CENTRAL EUROPE: HUNGARIAN PERSPECTIVES

ZSOLT NEMETH
Zsolt Nemeth is Vice-Chair of the Hungarian Civic Party (FIDESZ) and, from 1998, the State Secretary of the Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

In the last decade, Central Europe has awakened from a long period of ‘suspended animation'. Until 1989-90, the phrase ‘Central Europe' could scarcely be heard from any politician. It existed only in the conceptual armamentarium of historians, art historians and literary scholars. The prevailing opinion among politicians, especially in the US, was that the region of the Danube and the Vistula was part of the immense political unit of Eastern Europe that started somewhere at the Brandenburg Gate and ended at Vladivostok.

IS MONTENEGRO THE NEXT?

NAZIF MANDACI
Dr Nazif Mandaci is Research Assistant at the Faculty of Business, Department of International Relations, Dokuz Eylül University, Buca, Izmir.

Montenegro was one of the two former Yugoslav republics that remained loyal to the idea of Yugoslavism in the beginning of the endgame in the Yugoslav geography. What Belgrade did during the disintegration process primarily in Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia was shared by Podgorica as well. Although he had been in the throngs of the nomenclature that waged war against the rebellious republics of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), the current Montenegrin President Djukanovic now expresses his nation's regret for being an ally of the Belgrade regime in the crimes committed against the Croatian people during the civil war in the early 1990s.

A NEW FORMATION IN THE BLACK SEA: BLACKSEAFOR

HASAN ULUSOY
Hasan Ulusoy, PhD candidate at METU, is a First Secretary at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

INTRODUCTION
On 2 April 2001, Turkey hosted a signing ceremony of historic significance in the Çiragan Palace, Istanbul. At the ceremony, the littoral states of the Black Sea inked an Agreement on the establishment of the Black Sea Naval Co-operation Task Group, known as BLACKSEAFOR. By this Agreement, all the littoral states came together for the first time in the history of the region to pull their naval forces into a joint formation for realisation of common tasks.

THE ORIGIN OF THE CYPRUS QUESTION: THE BRITISH POLICY ON THE CREATION OF CYPRUS REPUBLIC

HALIL ERDEMIR
Halil Erdemir is a PhD candidate and tutor in the Department of Politics, University of Wales Swansea.

INTRODUCTION
Cyprus holds an important place in the United Kingdom's foreign policy. There was a rather complex situation in Cyprus during the 1950s; the Greeks tried for enosis (the union of Cyprus with Greece), the Turks resisted, arguing either for the status quo or for taksim (partition), while Britain tried to quit the Island with the exception of keeping two air bases. British officials used every opportunity to preserve British influence on the Island.

THE IMPACT OF THE JEWISH LOBBY ON AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

UMUT UZER
Umut Uzer is a PhD candidate at the Department of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia.

INTRODUCTION
For the last half century, America has played a key role in efforts to bring a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The state system in the Middle East has consolidated itself and the United States is dissuading any attempts at the revision of the Middle East subsystem, as the US's policy of dual containment toward Iraq and Iran demonstrates.

HOW TO STUDY FOREIGN POLITICS: SYSTEMIC CONSTRAINTS vs. DOMESTIC POLITICS and DECISION-MAKING STRUCTURE

BINNUR ÖZKEÇECI-TANER
Binnur Özkeçeci Taner is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.

INTRODUCTION
How are foreign policies made? Who makes foreign policies and implements them? How does international or domestic structure influence foreign policymaking? Do preferences of leaders influence foreign policy decisions more than other factors? If yes, to what extent?

TURKEY IN THE NEW CENTURY by Ismail Cem
Expanded 2nd ed., Nicosia, TRNC: Rustem, 2001, 228pp.

ANDREW MANGO
Andrew Mango is presently a member of the editorial boards of some academic publications in Britain, Turkey and France. His latest two books on Turkey are Turkey: The Challenge of A New Role, Praeger, 1994 and Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey, The Overlook Press, May 2000.

Serving foreign ministers do not often publish books explaining the concepts that underlie their conduct of the business of diplomacy. Diplomacy deals with concrete problems as they arise, often unexpectedly, day by day. To succeed, it has to be both practical and flexible. Foreign ministers are loath, therefore, to give hostages to fortune by committing to paper principles which they may have to accommodate later to changed circumstances. The danger of proclaiming high-sounding principles is illustrated by the sorry fate of the concept of an ‘ethical foreign policy', which has drawn amused, and at times cynical, comment in Britain recently.

TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY, 1774 – 2000 by William Hale. London: Frank Cass, 2000, pp. 375, bibliography, index. £35.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-7146-5071-4

YÜCEL GÜÇLÜ
Dr Yücel Güçlü is Minister-Counsellor at the Turkish Embassy to the Holy See.

Turkey's foreign policy is a vital aspect of its whole being. Most unfortunately it has been generally neglected by specialists of Turkish affairs in the Western world. So any work of scholarship on the subject in the English language is useful, and any work as authoritative and comprehensive as William Hale's account of the external relations of the late Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey is especially so. Turkish Foreign Policy, 1774-2000 tries to examine the diplomatic history of the country from the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca by which Russia, among other things, acquired the right of protection over Ottoman subjects of the Orthodox faith, i.e. the beginning of the so-called ‘Eastern Question', until the end of the Second Millennium. This is an important book by one of the most distinguished political scientists in the field.