ABSTRACT
Recent years have witnessed increasing questions regarding Turkey’s international orientation. Many have defined Turkey as an over-ambitious middle power, a categorization similar to traditional middle power identity, yet also evincing a strong determination on the part of Turkish decision makers to transform Turkey into a regional power that has the potential to become a great power sometime in future. This essay examines why Turkey’s over-ambitious middle power strategy has failed in producing the expected outcomes and why adopting the strategy of restrained middle power will serve Turkey’s national interests much better at a time of great upheavals, polarization, and uncertainties in international politics. The restrained middle power strategy can be justified on both realist and liberal grounds.
