Since 2002 two parallel processes affected Turkey's position in the world economy. First, the global shift (a massive and complex shift in global economic power from the developed West and North to the underdeveloped East and South) has been changing the parameters of the worldwide conditions of trade, finance and growth; and second, there has been a neoliberal transformation of Turkey's economy that is centred on fast export-oriented industrialization and financial restructuring. In a real sense, the neoliberal transformation of the Turkish economy within the context of the global shift is the story of Turkey's massive transformation, for better or for worse.

In parallel to this economic transformation, the coming to power of a new political party, the AKP, at the beginning of this period represents the development of an alternative segment of Turkish polity with the historic potential of co-opting Islamist elements into Turkey's ruling body. The main question which this book has tried to answer is to what extent Turkey's economic transformation in this period was the result of this new political orientation or, in other words, was this economic process the consequence of the AKP's Islamist political vision?

During this period of nearly 20 years, Turkey provides an excellent example of how global developments, changing positions of power and rankings, as summarized by the term global shift, have influenced a middle-sized regional power and have created the conditions, both economically and politically, that were needed for it to change from being a backward, underdeveloped, static and dependent economy to being an important regional power and an influencer on the world stage, with a GDP that multiplied almost three times in less than 20 years. Although the country's economy has experienced some serious setbacks, one after the 2008 global crisis and another one triggered by political tensions with the US in August 2018, it was still described in positive terms by the European Commission in 2019: “Turkey is endowed with a strategic geographic position, a strong and entrepreneurial business sector, a large domestic market and a growing young population” (European Commission 2019: 11).