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On June 21 and 22 in Istanbul, GMF and the Brookings Institute co-hosted a workshop titled “Frontiers of Europe.”  The widely attended event involved participants from the United States, the European Union, and wider Europe.  The workshop began with a dinner on Wednesday evening featuring Joschka Fisher, the former German Foreign Minister; Pierre Levy from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution.     The first session featured Irakly Allesania, advisor to the Georgian President, and Ognyan Minchev, from the Institute for Regional and International Studies, who provided a regional perspective.  Allesania called for more attention and support to Georgia’s NATO aspirations. He outlined the progress made in reforming Georgia.  Minchev pointed to depreciation in the Western Balkans and noted that if Turkey will be excluded from the EU, this may strengthen neo-Ottoman politics in Turkey and might pose difficulties for the Balkans.  Georgians, Ukrainians, and Turks were urged to own the European project and surprise European colleagues by engaging in the ongoing discussion and refrain from seeing membership only from a national perspective.    The second session featured Heather Grabbe of the European Commission; Ron Asmus, the director of GMF’s Brussels office; and James Dobbins from RAND.   Grabbe outlined the difficulties in Brussels and member states.  She referred to the current state as a wilder Europe and underlined the current confusion surrounding the debate on enlargement.  Asmus drew the larger strategic picture and urged for the completion of a Europe, whole and free.  He countered skeptics with comparisons from the 1990s when it also seemed extremely impossible to include Poland and the Baltic countries in NATO and later the EU.  Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, proposed the establishment of a membership-neutral status that would allow candidate countries to sit in on meetings, discuss matters, but would then leave the room when decisions are taken by member states.  Calls for variable geometry are likely to increase as the problem of enlargement and alienation continues to be addressed.   Over dinner, Ahmet Davutoglu, advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister, and prominent columnist Soli Ozel addressed the group.  Davutoglu responded to the many questions with a recount of historic progress.  Davutoglu argued that Turkey always realigned itself after major historic events such as WWI, WWII, and the Cold War.  Davutoglu stressed that the collapse of the Soviet Union did not produce any tangible gains for Turkey. On the contrary, he said that while our communist opponents in Eastern Europe found their way into the EU, Turkey, after defending the southeastern borders of NATO for decades, was left out.