Turks, Europeans, and Americans Debate Power and Prosperity

The fourth meeting of the Trilateral Strategy Group was held in Istanbul, May 25-27, 2011, on the theme of Perspectives on Power and Prosperity. As the title suggests, the aim was to broaden the trilateral debate to take up truly global and longer-term issues of demography, migration, and global governance. The discussion on these questions was revealing. But not surprisingly, the conversations on the Arab revolutions and rethinking security in Turkey’s neighborhood brought participants back to more immediate questions of crisis management in the Middle East, but also in adjacent areas of the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean where there remains much unfinished geopolitical business. To the extent that the strategic center of gravity for Europe and transatlantic partners is shifting to the south and east, the question of Turkey’s role in transatlantic strategies will be ever more critical.