An Interview with Kenneth Pollack
- An Interview with Kenneth Pollack
GJIA sat down with Dr. Kenneth Pollack, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, to discuss issues of Middle Eastern security including Syria, foreign involvement in the region, and recent protest movements.
Where does Turkey come into play with regard to Middle East security, especially in terms of its actions in Syria and Iraq with the Kurds?
Although we don't consider Turkey to be a Middle Eastern state, the truth is that Turkey is a tremendously important actor in the region. It borders Iran, Iraq, and Syria and sees its own security interests as being intimately wound up with the fate of those different countries. Since those three countries are so critical to Middle Eastern politics, international relations, and security, Turkey gets involved in all types of issues related to the larger Middle East and international security. Turkey's actions in the Middle East and in the international realm stem from its own internal politics, which right now revolve around Erdogan and his desire to consolidate power within the Turkish system. Early on, Erdogan believed that his own power could be amplified by making peace with the Kurdish population and maintaining good relations with his neighbors; thus, he tried reaching out to Iran, Iraq, the Assad regime, the United States, and the Kurdish populations both within Turkey and in neighboring countries. What we have seen within the last five or six years, however, is that Erdogan's approach to Turkey's internal politics has changed significantly. He now seems to regard his own Kurdish population as his adversary and has taken a very confrontational approach to his own Kurdish people, which has carried over to the Kurdish populations in Iraq, Syria, and Iran as well.
Syria and Iraq are both going through a tremendously difficult time; both have fallen apart at some point in the past decade, and Iran has worked very hard to get involved in their affairs. These events have called into question Turkey's ability, or even willingness, to pursue a policy of good relations with its neighbors. Turkey's internal needs, and Erdogan's political needs, have caused a real reversal of Turkish relations with these other countries. Right now, Iraq and Syria are more like places on maps than they are functional countries; their internal instability has sucked Turkey in, and it is not at all clear that Erdogan has a clear sense of what he could or wants to do to [End Page 64] guard Turkish interests in either country. He is frightened by the instability, especially because of the autonomy that Kurdish groups have been gaining as a result. He sees that there is a threat to Turkish interests, but it seems like he doesn't know what to do. He has been very involved and has intervened in significant ways, but he doesn't seem to have a clear or effective way to intervene and thus has only added to the mess. I personally think that over the past several years, Turkey has been more of a problem in the international relations of the Middle East than it has been a stabilizing force.
What do you think Iran's role is in the region, considering its activities in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, the simmering tensions it has with Saudi Arabia, and the fact that it is neither a Middle Eastern nor an Arab state?
In some ways, Iran is the most interesting state in the Arab world right now. As you rightfully pointed out, Iran is not an Arab state, yet it is intimately involved in the region's affairs and sees itself as the natural hegemon of the Middle East. At the same time, Iran views the Middle East as the location of a number of threats to its interests. What we have seen over the last five to ten years is Iran simultaneously trying to cope with the threats while also trying to capitalize on its opportunities. At some level, we can trace a lot of this involvement to the instability in the Arab...
