Dear Stradigma Readers,

In the process of the reshaping the geopolitics of Eurasia and Middle East, which include Turkey, how regional and global dynamics will change and what the ramifications will be continue to determine our agenda amid creating great debates in academic and intellectual circles. Thinking that the political formation launched under the shadow of the show of military force in Iraq needs to be dealt with within the general plan of reshaping the Middle East, we included examinations of policies of the United States of America on Iraq and the Middle East in the June issue of Stradigma journal.

In a political setting whereby claims that the US has started to act like an empire exist on the one hand and those that world politics is in fact determined by the interests of multi-national corporations exist on the other, the question of "whether it is the power of the empire, or the empire of power?" occupies our minds. Departing from this point, global monetary policies and the role of non-state actors that are influential on these policies cannot be overlooked. In this issue, we included analyses of factors, which have a role in the foreign policy formulation processes of states, while we also included the idea of lobbying which can seriously affect decision-making mechanisms and problems caused by globalization.

Alongside these studies, there are also studies on the share of defense expenditure in states' budgets and analyses that economic policies are an element reinforcing the political future of states.

As has been the case up until now, we continue to publish studies analyzing current developments with respect to the vital problems of our country in this issue as well. In our next issue, we wish to draw attention to the importance of natural energy resources within the context of regional and global energy policies.

We hope that our next issue will be rich in content as well.

Sincerely,

Yüksel SAMAST
Executive Editor