Indeed, there is no space left for war in his foreign policy. Even we can say that he is told to have hated war after the Ottoman-Russian War known as 93 Harbi (93 War). As a matter of fact, his foreign policy can be said to be concessive, but not adventurous. This is because he attached primary importance to protection of Anatolia and Thrace in his foreign policy.
To this end, he had to sacrifice Cyprus in 1878, Tunisia in 1881 and Egypt in 1882. It is a well-known fact that British had a role in determination of his policy for a long time. Still, it is a fact that he never acted concessive apart from the territories he was already prepared to sacrifice-anyway the state was not militarily strong enough to protect Egypt and Tunisia etc.
For example he could be insistent and obstinate against the demands by Armenians on Eastern Anatolia and by Greeks on Crete, and he even said he could sacrifice his throne and life for these.
The most concrete example of this is that he risked warring with Greece and that he won. It is considerable that the sultan accepted the war in spite of the European countries. Another remarkable issue about this war is that the Ottoman Empire is still under the pressure of big states. This is because Ottoman army, despite having occupied Greece in a very short period till near Athens, it could not gain anything apart from very little reparations because of the interference of other states.
Abdulhamid the 2nd, against such interference, pursued a new foreign policy. He attached prior importance to and weighed establishment of close ties with Germany, thinking because of Cyprus and Egypt and other foreign incidents, that Britain, which seemed to act friendly, aimed at breaking the Ottoman Empire into pieces since 1876. Pursuant to this risky but, considering the conditions of the day, necessary change of policy, the two countries cooperated in military, technical and educational fields. But it did not take much time for Britain and Russia to react to this policy. Nevertheless, until the meeting of King of Britain Edvard and Czar of Russia Nikola in Reval, Abdulhamid the 2nd could practice equilibrium policy.
Abdulhamid the 2nd, put into practice the policy of pan-Islam with support of Germany. It also prevented formation of alliances against the Ottoman State by provoking the conflicts between his enemies. Thanks to his using Karadağ against Serbia, and Greece against Bulgaria, their political dissolution and nationalization attempts were slowed down. Thrace remained as Ottoman territory in line with foreign policy goals.
François Georgeon notes that Abdulhamid the 2nd could keep Thrace in hand without any cost on the part of the state, only by means of the equilibrium established by diplomatic tricks. Considering the fact that Ottoman Empire diminished its goals in a considerable manner, this can be regarded as a success. As a matter of fact, Ottoman State followed a Islamic unity policy called Pan-Islamism. However, some authors claim that this was not a conscious policy and that because foreign policy conditions required struggling on a very wide geographical area, his policy seemed as pan-Islamism.
François Georgeon depicts that he tried to put into practice in his personality the caliphate concept in its most contemporary form with regard to his comment abut pan-Islamism policy, and states that his true purpose was to react against the Arabic intellectuals supported by Britain who asserted that caliphate was unjustly occupied by Ottomans and that it should be returned to Arabs. However, as some people claim, his pan-Islamism policy is not totally ignorant. But we can discuss whether it worked.
As known, Abdulhamid the 2nd undertook the problems of all Muslims as their spiritual leader. He did not abstain from spending huge amounts of money in order to have railway laid down to Hijaz. On one hand, importance of caliphs position was shown by establishing contacts with Muslims from all over the world from India to Indonesia, and on the other hand colonist and expansionist policy of the British was tried to be barricaded. Such policy followed by means of money, missionaries and supporting publications, no matter how much its effectiveness is in question, was enough to frighten Europeans.
The caliph policy by Abdulhamid is assessed as breaking off Reforms (Tanzimat).Sultans position which was restricted and turned into a post of protocol in Reforms period was turned into an even stronger position by Abdulhamid the 2nd. His pan-Islamism policy served appearance of first political leaders of Islamic world resisting against colonists.
No matter how assessed, the pressurizing policies of Abdulhamid the 2nd caused a growing opposition becoming more and more effective among the intellectuals and people in early 1900s. Obviously, the economic portrait of the Empire played an important role in providing a background for this opposition. But it would be mistaken to say that the starting point of the opposition is merely the economic conditions. However, it is not wrong to say that the opposing groups put fiscal policies and difficulties in foreign policy to good use.