Summer 2010 - St Antony's College - University of Oxford

South East European Studies
at Oxford (SEESOX)
Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu (right) with University Chancellor, Lord Patten (left) (Photo: Rob Judges)
On 1st of May, SEESOX hosted the
Foreign Minister of the Republic of
Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, a very
eminent professor and politician
to deliver his speech on “Turkish
vision of regional and global order”.
Davutoglu presented the main tenets
of Turkey’s foreign policy and his
country’s vision for the region and the
world. He pointed out that Turkey is
aiming at a “zero problem” policy with
neighbours and that he as minister is
pursuing a pro-active engagement with
all the different regions surrounding
Turkey. He stressed his country’s will
to initiate a high-level political dialogue
with countries such as Syria, Russia
and Greece in an effort to overcome
earlier animosities, his motivation to
be proactive with conflicts even before
they happen and to act as a mediator in
post-conflict countries like Bosnia, and
his country’s determination to establish
economic relations with most of its
neighbors. Davutoglu also stressed
that there is a need for a new inclusive
cultural order, where different cultures
will co-exist peacefully and that Turkey
is a country best suited for this role.
Davutoglu’s talk was the keynote lecture
of a three-day conference organized by
SEESOX on “Turkey’s foreign policy
in a changing world”, a conference
which included around 45 speakers
from Turkey and abroad to debate and
present papers on Turkey’s foreign
policy philosophy and practice.
On 10th May, SEESOX organized
a panel debate on a very topical and
widely debated subject “The economic
crisis in Greece and its implications for
Southern Europe and the Eurozone”.
The speakers included the Vice-
President of the Greek government,
Theodore Pangalos and a Portuguese
ex-politician, current Director at the
EBRD, Joao Cravigno. Both speakers
gave a firsthand account of the problems
and challenges that Southern European
countries, and in particular Greece
and Portugal, are facing as a result of
the current economic crisis. Pangalos
focused on the weaknesses of the
Greek political and economic system,
and the difficulties of the current
government to change decades of bad
management and political clientelism.
Cravigno spoke of Portugal’s economic
problems, including the lack of
competitiveness, low rate of savings in
the public finances and high spending.
Both speakers expressed their trust and
hope that Europe would display its
solidarity with the weaker economies
and stressed the need for domestic
tough measures to address the crisis.
Dr Othon Anastasakis
Joao Cravigno, Theodore Pangalos (VP of Greek Government) and Dimitri Sotiropoulous of St Antony’s (Photo: Rob Judges)