Notwithstanding these failures, Turkey’s strategic stature did not suffer, partly because the diminution of US engagement under President Barack Obama enabled Turkey to fill the ensuing regional power vacuum. The Arab Spring, despite its still-inconclusive outcome, greatly weakened Egypt’s role in regional politics and made it possible for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to position Turkey – and himself – as the leader of a Muslim bloc and a model of co-existence between Islam and democracy.