Journal of the M.G. Robertson Global Centre for Law & Public Policy Introduction: Volume I, Issue 1

Abstract

Recent history bears poignant witness to a growing humanitarian disaster that envelops much of the Middle East, the Latin West, and the world as ISIS enlarges its grip on parts of Iraq and Syria and intensifies its allegiance to human savagery. At the same time, the West appears to have concluded its negotiation of an Iran Nuclear deal, an event that corresponds with unmistakable evidence of an escalation of Russian support for its long-time ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Taking full advantage of these circumstances, President al-Assad, who is also allied with Iran, has reportedly inflamed the refugee crisis in order to bolster his grip on power. Whilst bodies of refugees wash up on Greece’s shores and evidence emerges indicating that ISIS fighters continue to use the Turkish border as a transit point to the war-torn Middle East, the Turkish government - in an apparent effort to hedge its bets between Europe and NATO, on one hand, and its Middle Eastern friends, on the other - hesitates to decide whether to fully invest the nation’s political and ideological capital in the ongoing conflict with ISIS. Turkey and Turkish policies are once again at the centre of any attempt to understand the above-referenced events. Impelled by these events, the M.G. Robertson Global Centre for Law & Public Policy launched an effort to comprehend Turkey and the geopolitical dimensions of its policies as a prelude to a wider focus on the Near East. Volume I of the JOURNAL OF THE M.G. ROBERTSON GLOBAL CENTRE FOR LAW & PUBLIC POLICY this endeavour.

Keywords: humanitarian disasters, ISIS, Iran Nuclear Deal, Syria, Russia, terrorism, international law