Positioning of Turkey in Trade Wars between the USA and China

Abstract

In the last years, the economic, financial, military, technological balance between the US and China has shifted rapidly in favor of China. It remains unclear what kind of relationship between China and the USA will be witnessed in the future. The reason why the issue is so on the agenda can be explained by looking at the recent history. In the post-cold war period, a unipolar world order was experienced under the leadership of the USA for a while, and then, with the strengthening of states such as Russia, the European Union and China, a multipolar world order was adopted. Military power called as hard power used in the cold war period has been replaced by commercial and economic power called as soft power which is masterly used by China.

Nowadays, where the welfare of countries depends on international trade, the fact that China takes over the leadership from the USA and that the USA spends most of its energy on sanctions against China also worries the third countries. Because it is feared that a possible strict polarization between these two superpowers will drag the world into a new cold war era. The fact that countries have to choose a side creates a very difficult situation considering the interdependence in international trade.

In this study, the historical development of the trade wars will be explained, and then the situation will be evaluated from the US and Chinese perspectives. China's new approach to international trade will be examined with the Belt and Road Initiative. Then, it will try to explain how positioning Turkey in the trade war.