Turkey's Coup Catch-22 (Joshua W. Walker, Selma Bardakci, The National Interest)

Turkey’s failed coup attempt on Friday, June 15 was bad news for Turkey. After enduring a string of horrific terrorist attacks, the most recent less than a month before at the very airport that was shut down over the weekend, the black eye from these events and reactions they will provoke are hard to estimate at this point. But the fact remains that if the coup had been successful, Turkey would have lost its democratically elected government to yet another military junta. Its people would have to leave their hope for democratic consolidation and individual freedom. Yet now, the suppression of the failed coup has only further exposed the levels of polarization that have given President Erdogan exceeding authority over his country and its constitution.

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/turkeys-coup-wouldve-crushed-democracy-democracy-getting-17041

Japan Is the Only G-7 Leader That Still Faces the World (Joshua W. Walker, Hidetoshi Azuma, The National Interest)

The outcome of the British referendum favoring the island nation’s historic return to isolationism epitomized the growing trend recently afflicting the West: introversion. Introversion is now eroding internationalism, with which the West has led the world since 1945 through such cooperative frameworks as the Group of Seven. The upshot is the West’s emerging fragmentation that stands to be only divided and potentially conquered by the global force of revisionism led by Russia and China.

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/japan-the-only-g-7-leader-still-faces-the-world-16997

The Rise of the Abe Doctrine (Joshua W. Walker, Hidetoshi Azuma, The National Interest)

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-rise-the-abe-doctrine-15072