This article analyses Turkey’s active and ambitious foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments. Many academics and experts on Turkish politics attributed Turkey’s foreign policy activity to the changing of the mentality of the AKP leadership. I argue in this article that the reason for this change lies not only on the capacity, ability and the will of the Turkish Islamists, but also, mostly, on the restructuring of global capitalism, which enabled the emerging powers to gain more autonomy in their foreign policies. The US has supported the growing influence of emerging powers, some of which are its allies, defining them as pivotal states. However, Turkey, under the AKP rule, failed both as an autonomous actor and pivotal state to play a leadership role in its region.
