Abstract Turkey has emerged as a major actor in the Middle East over the last decade, since the ruling party AKP came to power in 2002. Turkey is now playing a mediation role in regional conflicts and has been speaking out loudly on sensitive issues such as the Iranian nuclear program and the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. Furthermore, Turkey has established close ties with the Arab world which has suffered the relationship with its long-time ally Israel. This new presence in Middle East has been criticized by Turkey's allies in west. Critics argue that the country is about to abandon its former western relationship and strengthen their ties with the Arab world instead. This thesis has two main purposes. First, an empirical purpose which is to describe and explain changes in Turkish foreign policy towards Middle East. Second, this thesis has a theoretical purpose, aiming to make a contribution to the study field also on a theoretical level. The ambition is therefore to provide with ideas and/or modify the model of Gustavsson in order to make it more applicable of other cases of foreign policy change. The theoretical framework applied on this thesis is Jakob Gustavsson's model for explaining foreign policy change. Turkey's foreign policy change will be analyzed through a qualitative case study that focuses on the country's relations with the Middle East. Based on Gustavsson's model, possible explanations to Turkey's foreign policy change towards Middle East are structural changes in the international and national system. The end of the bipolarity system during the cold war resulted in a major structural change, thus Turkey had to adapt to the new system by hammering out a new foreign policy doctrine. In addition to this, the growing opposition to a Turkish membership within the EU is considered to be another explanation to Turkey's improved relations with the Middle East. The results shows furthermore possible explanations on a national level such as growing economy, a strong Turkish public opinion, new actors and also AKP:s ideological affinity with Muslim aspirations. The Iraq crisis, which arose in 2003 when Turkey rejected a resolution authorizing the deployment of American forces in Turkey in a war against Iraq, functions as a catalysts for the changes in Turkish foreign policy. One of the main components in the model emphasizes that the individual key actor needs to go through a change within its belief system, however the author have not found such evidence in this case and thus suggests that this part of the model becomes slightly modified or even removed. Keywords: Turkey, AKP, Ahmet Davutoglu, Middle East, foreign policy change, zero problems towards neighbors

This thesis aims to analyse the change and continuity issue in German Foreign Policy. In this study, the basic aim is to identify the basic parameters of the West German foreign policy during the Cold War and identify the implications of the reunification on foreign policy of Germany. Actually, after the reunification, the economically giant Germany has started to pursue a more self-reliant foreign policy course but there is not a radical shift from the basic parameters and the core values. The concept of &amp / #8216 / civilian power&amp / #8217 / and the international climate within which the foreign policy is formulated, will be given priority. It is argued that from the Gulf War in 1990-1991 to the Kosovo War of 1999, German contribution to military operations has increased. However, Germany has done this within a multilateral context and the aim has been to keep the values of respect for democracy and human rights. Thus, continuity dominates over change in German foreign policy, with regard to its policy record during the 1990s.

Ontological security theory has served the field of international relations well by providing a theoretical lens through which the continuous behaviours of states can be understood. This study aims to contribute to furthering the development of ontological security theory by demonstrating its explanatory power even in the context of altered state behaviour. Employing a narrative methodological approach the study investigates the coexistence between states' ontological security pursuits in the form of identity continuity on one hand and political policy change on the other. This is achieved by examining political discourse surrounding a case of political policy change, the Swedish shift in stance towards NATO. The analysis of the study reveals that a pursuit of identity continuity and hence ontological security has coexisted with the political policy change, facilitated by narrative adaptations.These narrative adaptations entail making the political change compatible with the already established state identity. This allows for change in certain aspects while preserving continuity in areas necessary to fulfill the state's need for ontological security.

This master thesis focuses on the changes in domestic and foreign policy during the presidency of Michelle Bachelet in Chile (2006-2010). The goal of this study is to find out whether systemic changes in domestic politics and/or reorientation in foregin policy have taken place within the regional shift to the left. The paper is divided into four logically connected chapters. The conclusion is that, despite several partial changes in domestic sphere and a major emphasis in regional aspects of foreign policy, no aforementioned profound changes have occurred.

The reform of the United Nations Security Council belongs among the most discussed topics in the field of international relations. The criticism calling for adjustments to the Council's structure arose with the transformation of the international scene during the years of the Cold War. The process of decolonisation and the subsequent growth of the UN membership along with the decline of Great Britain and France fuelled the international pressure calling for the UNSC to reflect this new situation in its composition. However, in spite of the great number of proposals, since 1963 there has not been any major change. France, a permanent member of the Security Council, continued maintaining its negative attitude towards the reform until the end of the Cold War. Nevertheless, shortly after the end of the Cold War, the position of France changed. This change was articulated through the speech of Alain Juppé at the plenary meeting of the General Assembly in 1993, where France openly supported the UNSC reform. It can therefore be said that in 1993 there was a great change in French foreign policy. This thesis analyses how this change is projected in political discourse. Its aim is examining the nature of argumentation in the abovementioned discourse along with the way it corresponds to the...

The principal aims of the research are to identify the nature and scope of Turkish foreign policy change towards Iran in the period 2002-2012 - the first ten years of the successive governments of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Then, individual sources of foreign policy change and their respective roles in shaping Turkish foreign policy toward Iran will be investigated. As the research is theoretically grounded in the subfield of foreign policy analysis known as foreign policy change, the reader is familiarized with a variety of different models used in the study of foreign policy change. In order to assess the relevance of the individual sources, an alternative explanatory model is designed. The application of the designed foreign policy model highlights the necessity of applying a wider approach in the quest to assess Turkish foreign policy change, taking into account the different domestic and international sources in order to achieve a comprehensive explanation that can evaluate the relative power of international and domestic political, economic, and ideational sources serving as its driving mechanisms. The role of economic factors - long seen as fundamental in shaping Turkey's foreign policy toward its neighbors - and the role of security concerns are subsequently identified as...

Sweden is the only state in the Baltic Sea region currently not under NATO protection, which puts the state in a particularly vulnerable position. On 18 May 2022, Sweden officially deemed NATO alignment a more effective option of security strategy in projecting deterrence and dealing with the security challenges the state is facing, compared to a strategy of non-alignment which has been Sweden’s security posture for over 200 years. The aim of the thesis is to explain this shift in Sweden’s security policy.  The thesis will explain small states’ security policy beyond the traditional explanations found in realist theory of state-centric threat balancing and sovereignty. Shelter theory claims that small states’ options for security is either to find a protecting power or join an alliance in order to be politically and militarily sustainable. The thesis will analyse Sweden’s shift in security policy by examining shelter theory’s claim that in order for small states to survive and prosper, buffering up domestic capabilities does not suffice, they need to seek political and military shelter from external security providers by implementing bi- or multilateral agreements with neighbouring states, great powers and by joining alliances.  Analysing a long-time deviant case of a non-aligned small state, this thesis argues that Sweden’s drawn-out road-map to NATO membership is problematic to explain from the perspective of shelter theory. Consequently, the thesis makes the additional claim that factors related to Sweden’s domestic policy, such as public opinion and the nearly institutionalised practice of broad political consensus in issues relating to security policy, also play an important role for the design of Sweden’s security policy. Shelter theory in combination with domestic factors’ influence on security policy change offer a more fully fledged explanation of Sweden's shift in security policy to NATO alignment. This thesis argues that its findings complement and enhance shelter theory by shedding light on the importance of domestic factors in the study of small states’ security policy.