All Policy Analysis by Soner Cagaptay

On August 10, Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his prolific electoral run by collecting almost 52 percent of the vote in Turkey's presidential poll, easily besting his chief rival, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who represented the left-right CHP/MHP coalition. A large part of Erdogan's success lay in peeling away conservative MHP voters through

Despite the authoritarian impulses of Turkey's long-governing AKP, the country's civil society has become too diverse for President Erdogan or any other single leader to control entirely.

Ankara's efforts to become a regional power player have backfired. It's time to renew old partnerships instead.

Davutoglu's long track record of Ottoman revivalism has exposed Turkey to dangerous regional threats, and defusing them will likely preoccupy him in his new post.

Erdogan will go down in history as the leader who transformed Turkey economically, but the liberals will transform it politically.

Erdogan has the political and constitutional wherewithal to transform Turkey into a presidential system, and he will likely do just that.

Erdogan holds several trump cards that make him the unquestioned front-runner in a landmark election.

Erdogan's strategy in the August presidential polls envisions strong support among European Turks in the first round of voting, and backing from nationalist Kurds in case of a second round.

Dr. Cagaptay discusses how the United States can encourage Turkey's reorientation toward Europe as the two countries work together on the ISIS/IS threat and other issues.

Rapprochement with Turkey may not lead to outright independence for the Kurds. But in the new Middle East, the borders between the Kurds and Arabs will be more real than those between the Kurds and Turkey.

By maintaining close ties with Iraqi Kurds, continuing the peace talks with Turkish Kurds, and developing security relations with Syrian Kurds, Ankara can help stave off the threats now looming on its southern borders.

Reza Akhlaghi interviews Dr. Cagaptay about the crisis in Iraq, the state of U.S.-Turkish relations, Ankara's policy toward Syria, and more.

Soner Cagaptay is the author of the new book The Rise of Turkey: The Twenty-First Century's First Muslim Power . His other work includes the book Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Modern Turkey: Who is a Turk? He is the Beyer Family Fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program

If Erdogan hopes to become Turkey's first directly elected president, he will need to continue courting Kurdish voters and burnishing his economic and populist credentials.

As Turkey's presidential election approaches, a closer look at the results of the March local elections sheds light on how the country's near-term political future may unfold.

Turkey has risen over the past decade thanks to Erdogan, but liberals are becoming the country's new agents of change.