Support to Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies EDAM 2017

The project year was going to cover the completion of two streams of research studies, one on multilateralism, the other on internet freedoms. The third stream is a roundtable event called Bodrum Roundtable which is a forum to discuss global and Turkish foreign policy challenges with distinguished guests and experts. Multilateralism and Global Governance: The Turkish View The research project aimed to examine how various parts of the Turkish society view global challenges, gauge the awareness about the role of multilateral institutions and evaluate the proclivity for Turkey to support the work of these institutions as well as clarify the public linked barriers to such an engagement. A related objective was to assess the motivation for and the public support for unilateral as opposed to multilateral diplomacy. As part of this aim, the perception of specific global and regional multilateral institutions were examined. The project focused on five different areas of global governance, Namely: 1. Global economy (IMF, World Bank, WTO, Black Sea Economic Cooperation);2. Security (NATO, SCO, OSCE, UN, NPT); 3. Climate change;4. Cyber space (i.e. censorship, surveillance), and 5. International institutions and international law (EU, UN, Council of Europe). B. Surveillance and Freedom of Expression Online: Finding the Appropriate Balance in Democratic Countries EDAM’s research project seeked to produce a detailed, analytical and evidence-based report that comprises of a set of policy recommendations for Turkish policy makers. The report contributed to a better understanding of the legal and regulatory safeguards of democratic countries that limit their surveillance powers in the digital arena; discussed what priorities (i.e. national security) may interfere with and restrict freedom of expression online and whether these comply with the fundamental principles of legality, proportionality and necessity; explored existing national and international institutions that oversee and review those bodies involved in online surveillance operations and whether they are properly resourced (i.e. oversight/vision, personnel capacity, financial solvency). C. The EDAM Bodrum Roundtable The EDAM Bodrum Roundtable is an annual international conference for opinion leaders that is held in Bodrum, a resort area along the Aegean coast of Turkey. The Roundtable was first launched in 2005 with the idea of establishing an effective and continuing high-level network where issues of common concern to Turkey and its transatlantic partners can be discussed. The Roundtable brings European and US opinion makers from politics, civil society, academia, media and the business world together with their Turkish counterparts and facilitates an open and frank discussion on topics that are vital to shaping the future transatlantic agenda. The twelve meetings between 2005 and 2016 have contributed to this objective. In fact, according to the recently released global think tank rankings by the University of Pennsylvania, EDAM’s Bodrum Roundtable has been ranked as the 9th best think tank event in the world.