Turkey in Europe and the World—A Trilateral Initiative

As part of a two-year programme, the Center for American Progress (CAP) is leading - in cooperation with the Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) and the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) - “Turkey in Europe and the World—A Trilateral Initiative”, funded by Stiftung Mercator in Essen, Germany.

The project will deliver the following activities and products: 1)  CAP will establish a trilateral working group including senior leadership from IPC, IAI, and other relevant organizations. The confidential conversations of the working group will focus on outlining common interests and options for cooperation between Europe (especially Germany), Turkey, and the United States. The goal is to develop policy ideas to overcome the current stagnation and formulate recommendations in the areas of foreign and security policy, economic cooperation, and civil society collaboration. 2)    The group’s policy recommendations will be summarized in an overall strategy paper and several policy papers. 3)    Based on the strategy paper, the group will reach out to decision makers and disseminate the findings through:
a.    background meetings with policymakers and members of the European Union and German, Turkish, and U.S. administrations;
b.    a public conference to present the findings of the strategy paper, share the ideas, and elicit feedback and recommendations;
c.    discussions of the recommendations in existing conference formats, including the Munich Security Conference and the Istanbul Forum.
The initiative will tie into the existing “Global Turkey and Europe Project” of IAI and IPC to make the best use of existing research and networks. The trilateral initiative “Turkey in Europe and the World” will also analyze regional dynamics to better understand and represent the role of Turkey to international audiences, along with outline important shared goals and values. This is in itself a worthy goal, the trilateral dimension of our initiative, bringing together actors from Turkey, Europe and the United States, makes it an even more ambitious undertaking. The project will have as a prime goal the inclusion of younger policymakers and a new generation of political actors in Turkey.