The Arab – Turkish Relations

During the last two decades and in parallel with its quest to play a more significant role on the international scene, Turkey began the process of re-opening up to the Arab world as its strategic depth. This initiative led to an increase in Turkey's political, economic, and cultural interaction with the Arab world. It was also accompanied by an apparent rise in Ankara's soft power in the region.

However, after the outbreak of the Arab revolutions, Turkey's relations with some Arab countries faced several challenges. The collapse of the legitimacy of many regional governments, the spread of the phenomenon of "failed states," the increase in foreign interventions, and the rise of radical groups created a chaotic environment. These developments prompted Turkey to increase its political and defense engagement and depend more on "hard power" to create to balance the regional and international actors in the region and to ward off the security repercussions resulting from the increase in the regional void, foreign interference, and terrorism.

The major global trends indicate that regional powers will play a more significant role in the future in terms of reshaping reality in different parts of the world, including the Middle East. In this context, the significance of Turkey as a regional power and its regional and international weight dictate the need to study it scientifically and objectively to reach a better and more accurate understanding of it. Therefore, and based on the fact that knowledge is power and that crises pose challenges but create opportunities, the conference seeks to be a regional and international platform for an in-depth scholarly discussion of Arab-Turkish relations: the challenges facing these relations, ways to overcome them, in addition to exploring new opportunities for cooperation, coordination, and increasing the joint workspace between the two parties in a way that would contribute to achieving security, stability, and prosperity for the countries and the people of the region..

• Theme I: Diplomatic and Foreign Policy
  • “The Quest for Stability”: Turkish relations with unstable Arab countries, challenges, and opportunities for stability and peace.
  • “New Horizons?”: The unstable relations between Turkey and some Arab countries: Are there new prospects?
  • “Emerging Relationships”: Turkey’s Emerging Relationships with Some Arab Countries: Aspirations and Challenges.

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• Theme II: The Security and Defense
  • "Unconventional Risks and Threats": Covers topics such as water, food, energy, terrorism, cybersecurity, etc.
  • “Arab-Turkish Military Relations”: Challenges facing the development of professional relations between Turkey and the Arab countries.
  • “Defense Industry Cooperation”: Opportunities for cooperation in the field of investment, manufacturing, technology transfer, and training.

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• Theme III: Economy and Investment
  • “Renewable Energy”: The challenges and opportunities for cooperation in the field of technology development and the use of renewable energy in Turkey and the Arab world.
  • “Islamic banking”: The challenges of opportunities for cooperation in this sector and means of developing it and expanding reliance on it in the banking transactions.
  • "Free Trade": The challenges and opportunities, obstacles facing trade liberalization, and possible means to increase the volume of mutual trade.

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• Theme IV: Society and Culture
  • "Mutual Perceptions of Arabs and Turks": In educational curricula, drama productions, public culture, or internal and foreign policies.
  • “Higher Education”: The problems and challenges facing the development of joint initiatives between the two parties in the field of education, and means to overcome, in a manner that helps deepening the Arab-Turkish relations.

• Conference booklet
• Conference agenda