Mediation as Strategic Agency: Comparing Qatar’s Hedging and Turkey’s Balancing in the Gaza and Ukraine Conflicts

Abstract

This article examines mediation as a form of strategic agency by comparing Qatar’s hedging in Gaza and Turkey’s balancing in Ukraine. It argues that mediation is increasingly instrumentalized by small and middle powers to manage uncertainty, enhance autonomy, and project influence in a fragmented international order. Drawing on theories of hedging and balancing, the study demonstrates how mediation functions as a key instrument through which these strategies are enacted. Qatar employs mediation as a cautious, risk-averse strategy to diversify alliances, safeguard regime security, and amplify its global reputation. At the same time, Turkey integrates mediation into a more assertive balancing approach that leverages military capacity, institutional ties, and regional ambitions. Using qualitative comparative analysis of diplomatic initiatives—including Qatar’s role in Gaza War talks and Turkey’s mediation in the Russia-Ukraine War—the article contributes to debates on non-Western diplomacy. It shows how mediation functions simultaneously as conflict management, reputational capital, and a strategic instrument of foreign policy.

Keywords

small states, middle powers, non-Western diplomacy, conflict management, foreign policy autonomy

Citation

Akpınar, P., & Öztürk, A. E. 2026. Mediation as Strategic Agency: Comparing Qatar's Hedging and Turkey's Balancing in the Gaza and Ukraine Conflicts. Uluslararası İlişkiler, Advanced Online Publication, 8 July 2026: 1-20. DOI: 10.33458/uidergisi.1972410

Affiliations

Pınar Akpınar Assistant Professor, Department of International Affairs & Gulf Studies Program, Qatar University, Doha E-Mail: [email protected] Orcid: 0000-0003-2828-5979

Ahmet Erdi Öztürk Reader, Department of Politics and International Relations, London Metropolitan University, London E-Mail: [email protected] Orcid: 0000-0003-1749-6682