New Article by GEO-POWER-EU Researcher Asuman Kübra Baş on Türkiye’s Role in the Western Balkans and the EU’s Framing of External Influence

New Article by GEO-POWER-EU Researcher Asuman Kübra Baş on Türkiye’s Role in the Western Balkans and the EU’s Framing of External Influence

GEO-POWER-EU WP5 co-lead and researcher Asuman Kübra Baş (European Neighbourhood Council) co-authored a new op-ed titled “Don’t Put Türkiye in the Same Basket as Russia and China.”

Drawing on the GEO-POWER-EU Interdependence Database, which tracks the political, economic, security and societal ties of external actors in all six Western Balkan countries, the article compares the profiles of Türkiye, China and Russia in the region. It finds that Türkiye’s influence is broad but soft, China’s is deep in the economic dimension but largely absent elsewhere, and Russia’s is declining, with a security presence shrinking everywhere except Serbia. The authors argue that grouping the three actors together obscures the distinctions that should shape the EU’s engagement with each of them.

Read the article here.

*Featured image: Daktilo 1984