Japan and Turkey as Humanitarian Powers

2 minute reading time

Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) organized a symposium on 24 November 2016, entitled “Japan and Turkey as Humanitarian Powers” with the support of the External Relations Presidency of the Republic of Turkey, Center for Strategic Research of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SAM), TOBB University of Economics and Technology and Japanese Embassy in Ankara. Following the keynote speeches, Professor Akihiko TANAKA, one of the invited speakers, made a presentation titled “Japan's Global Reach: Development Cooperation and Foreign Policy” and Ambassador Musa Kulaklıkaya introduced his notice “Turkey's Soft Power: Contribution of Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency”.

During the first panel “Humanitarian Power Diplomacy”, Professor Yoshihide Soeya made a presentation titled “An East Asian Order and Japan's Role under the Trump Presidency” while Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Özdamar followed him with his presentation “Turkey's Foreign Policy: A Middle Power's Quest”. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Talha Köse and Dr. Pınar Akpınar also made contributions with their presentations respectively “The Role of Conflict Resolution in Turkey's Foreign Policy” and “Turkish Humanitarianism and the Role of NGOs”.

In the second panel “Peacebuilding and Africa”, Professor Hideaki Shinoda made a presentation titled "Japan's Involvement in Africa in the Age of 'Partnership Peacekeeping'”, followed by Dr. Volkan İpek with his evaluation titled  “The Evolution of Turkey's Africa Engagement”. The symposium ended with the question&answer session after the presentations of Professor Sadaharu Kataoka titled “Japan and Africa through TICAD Process” and of Serhat Orakçı titled “Turkey's Humanitarian Work in Africa: Reflections from the Field”.