Turkey and Qatar in the Tangled Geopolitics of the Middle East

"This excellent book provides a wealth of empirical evidence and detailed policy analysis on Turkey and Qatar's strategic calculations in a rapidly changing Middle East. If you want to understand how Qatar has become Turkey's most trusted ally in the Arab world, this is a must read. As a scholar who is intimately familiar with both the Qatari and Turkish domestic context, Birol Baskan has produced an essential account for researchers and policy makers." (Omer Taspinar, Professor at the National War College, Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute) "At a time when Qatar and Turkey have emerged as central actors in shifting geopolitical alignments in the Middle East, Baskan has written a highly nuanced, timely, and perceptive analysis of one of the region's most significant developments. This is a solid book that is at once in-depth and accessible. I highly recommend it." (Mehran Kamrava, Professor and Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar)

This book narrates how Turkey and Qatar have come to forge a mutually special relationship. The book argues that throughout the 2000s Turkey and Qatar had pursued similar foreign policies and aligned their positions on many critical and controversial issues.This book narrates how Turkey and Qatar have come to forge a mutually special relationship. The book argues that throughout the 2000s Turkey and Qatar had pursued similar foreign policies and aligned their positions on many critical and controversial issues. By doing so, however, they increasingly isolated themselves in the Middle East as states challenging the status quo. The claim made here is that it is this isolation—which became acute in the summer of 2013—that led the two countries to forge much stronger relations.