Author: Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor in the Department of Government, University of Essex

While Turkey’s government is struggling to deal with mass protests at home (after Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was imprisoned), in foreign affairs it is in an increasingly strong position as a key power broker in deals with Europe, the US and Russia. At the crossroads between Asia and Europe, Turkey is strategically important to just about everyone, and is emerging as a clever negotiator. Since the early 2000s, Turkey has relied on a foreign policy approach that emphasised cooperation instead of competition. Economic ties were a priority, which helped Turkey steadily improve its relationships with Russia, Iran and Syria. While…

There is nothing more dangerous than an autocrat who has managed to dupe the public into thinking that they are good at managing the economy, or are the key to maintaining security. That the Trump years saw reasonable levels of economic and job growth while inflation stayed under control, helped the public look the other way from the constant stream of warnings that Trump was the biggest threat to democracy since the civil war. But will the US actually fall to autocracy? Full blown authoritarianism is unlikely, but the signs are clear that the US will at the very least…