U.S. President Donald Trump has released a new National Security Strategy document, which was much speculated on before it was unveiled.
The 68-page document has been interpreted in domestic politics and the media as a return to the super-power competition that has been on holiday for 30 years. This is not an exaggerated interpretation, but is exactly what Trump, who had established his campaign on a more reasonable, realistic and long-awaited introversion, did.
However, I must add that this return is very desperate. For instance, Russia, which is referred to many times in the document, is of this opinion. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the sections that refer to Russia in one way or another reveal the imperialist character of the document.
China, regarded as one of the rivals in the document that want to challenge the power of the U.S., has given a clear response, saying that it is the product of Cold War logic.
Let us move to the document's mentions of Turkey. Just before the document was unveiled, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, who prepared it, made confusing statements about Turkey. Earlier, McMaster corrected his unsubstantiated statement that Ankara supports "radical Islamists", saying that he firmly believes in the strong alliance between Turkey and the U.S. There is not a direct statement about Turkey in the document, which Ankara is following in such an atmosphere. However, it refers to developments in the Middle East as "elements having high potential to influence Washington's relations with Ankara."
As well as clues about how to manipulate the strife between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the report also has statements about radical terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida and Daesh. So, it is clear evidence that the U.S. will have a hard job in the near future, particularly in the Middle East, which is the heart of the world energy market and is of particular concern to the U.S. for this reason.
All analysts that follow the present and past state of the Middle East can easily say this because the report, which mentioned the threats of the age such as cyber-attacks, winked at the multi-polarity that the world is heading toward. Moreover, it does not put forth any steps to fix its relations with Turkey as an ally of half a century that it has moved away from and pushed to another bloc.
Regional states have now gained too much experience to be manipulated through designed or perceived terrorist organizations such as Daesh, the PKK or the People's Protection Units (YPG). They have very well understood the sources of provocative actions such as the assassination of Andrei Karlov, the former Russian ambassador in Ankara, and the Air Force's downing of a Russian fighter jet in Turkey. So, they avoid falling into traps and spoiling the relationship between them in favor of the U.S.
Turkey, Russia and Iran, the three influential states in the region, are aware that the move targets them in the final analysis, regardless of whom it is aimed at.
As has happened in Syria, powerful governments that received popular support in the three countries have seen that they could be more influential than the U.S., which is not even geographically close to the region.
Moreover, Trump's intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, also mentioned in the document, is no longer an instrument that is as effective as thought.
Let us see how Trump, who has broke all the promises he made before the election to the American people to find support, will revise this document in practice. Will he be able to establish a more realistic model of relations with rivals that have doubled their exports to the U.S., as well as those in the Middle East?
Not all hope is gone. He is an intelligent businessman that has to realize that the world of star wars is far behind.
