RSPI 2025/1

10/04/2025

Revisiting the current Turkish foreign policy tendencies. West, East or in-between?

Angelo Santagostino-Hatice Yazgan

Between 2023 and 2024, Turkish foreign policy, under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, previously head of the secret services, has taken on a very marked character. Its ultimate goal is to make Turkey a regional power, but with the ambition of becoming something more on the international geopolitical scene.

An active foreign policy of neutrality for the European Union?

Vito Monte

The article explores the concept of neutrality in the context of current global conflicts, emphasizing the need for the European Union (EU) to redefine its foreign and defense policies. It highlights the ongoing militarization of international order with references to conflicts in Israel-Palestine, Russia - Ukraine, Central Africa, and the Middle East. The piece critiques the postCold War illusion of a secure world driven by finance and trade, pointing out the failure to recognize emerging threats from China and Russia.

The road to China’s market and diplomatic normalisation through British and American records (1969-1971).

Bruno Pierri

At the dawn of the 1970s, trade was regarded by British government as a way to gain an as large as possible share of the Chinese market, as well as to improve political relations. This was possible because Beijing was showing enough pragmatism to pursue national interests without being led by ideological fervour.

Parallel tracks. Sino-Polish relations and perceptions in the late Cold War.

Maddalena Valacchi

As two parallel tracks, Chinese and Polish history followed similar paths during the 1980s that resulted in different outcomes. This paper explores the shared challenges, triumphs, and setbacks in the social and economic spheres, looking at the extent of awareness regarding these parallels, and their impact on mutual perceptions.

Leading or disruptive? A focus on the effects of BRICS’ cooperation

Giovanni Barbieri

Sixteen years after the formal birth of the BRICS coalition, many changes have occurred in the world that have revolutionised the structure of international relations and the functioning of the global economic system. While it is not sure that these changes are directly linkable to the action of the BRICS, it can certainly be said that without the existence of the BRICS some of these changes would not have taken place.