Assesses the state of U.S.-Turkey relations as well as Turkey's relations with its closest neighbors, and offers a way forward for strengthening relations between the United States and Turkey by focusing on strategic issues of mutual concern.

Reflections on the Ataturkist origins of Turkish foreign policy and domestic linkages / Andrew Mango -- Economic issues in Turkish foreign policy / William Hale -- Turkey and the Muslim Middle East / Kemal Kirişçi -- Turkish policy toward Israel / Meliha Benli Altunişik -- Turkish policy toward the Balkans / Şule Kut -- Turkish-Russian relations: from adversity to 'virtual rapprochement' / Duygu Bazoğlu Sezer -- Turkish policy toward Central Asia and the Transcaucasus / Gareth M. Winrow -- Turkish policy toward Greece / Tozun Bahcheli -- Turkey and the Cyprus question / Clement H. Dodd -- Turkey and the European Union / Atila Eralp -- U.S.-Turkish relations / George S. Harris -- Beyond 'bridge or barrier': Turkey's evolving security relations with the West / Ian O. Lesser.

This edited volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the transformations in Turkey's transatlantic connection including political, economic, and security relations. The book concentrates on the question of how these transformations in conjuction with several other factors are reflected over Turkey's foreign policy behavior and new alignment preferences. Contributors especially delve into regional affairs of Turkey seeking to show how the transatlantic frame alternatively impact Turkey's policies in different neighborhoods, arguing that Turkish foreign policy cannot be understood without careful analysis of multiple international pressures and changing dynamics at the domestic political scenery.

A rapidly-changing nation and a key player in the Middle East, Turkey has long been centrally important to both the United States and the European Union. A major partner both of the EU and Turkey, the US has also been the most ardent and committed supporter of closer ties between them. Yet while Turkey’s relations with the US and the EU have been intimately linked, they have not proceeded along two parallel planes. Nathalie Tocci tells the story of this dynamic triangular relationship, exploring how and why the US has shaped the course of relations among its allies. An empirical study with strong policy relevance, this volume draws on in-depth interviews and official documents to provide a succinct overview of the issues and stakeholders. Tocci argues that the Turkish situation can be viewed as a quintessential case study, tackling broader questions about US foreign policy in the region as a whole.

In the post–Cold War era, states increasingly find themselves in conflicts with nonstate actors. Finding it difficult to fight these opponents directly, many governments instead target states that harbor or aid nonstate actors, using threats and punishment to coerce host states into stopping those groups. Wendy Pearlman and Boaz Atzili investigate this strategy, which they term triadic coercion. They explain why states pursue triadic coercion, evaluate the conditions under which it succeeds, and demonstrate their arguments across seventy years of Israeli history. This rich analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict, supplemented with insights from India and Turkey, yields surprising findings. Traditional discussions of interstate conflict assume that the greater a state’s power compared to its opponent, the more successful its coercion. Turning that logic on its head, Pearlman and Atzili show that this strategy can be more effective against a strong host state than a weak one because host regimes need internal cohesion and institutional capacity to move against nonstate actors. If triadic coercion is thus likely to fail against weak regimes, why do states nevertheless employ it against them? Pearlman and Atzili’s investigation of Israeli decision-making points to the role of strategic culture. A state’s system of beliefs, values, and institutionalized practices can encourage coercion as a necessary response, even when that policy is prone to backfire. A significant contribution to scholarship on deterrence, asymmetric conflict, and strategic culture, Triadic Coercion illuminates an evolving feature of the international security landscape and interrogates assumptions that distort strategic thinking.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. Turkey's involvement in the Gulf War in 1991 paved the way for the country's acceptance into the European Union. This book traces that process and in the first part looks at Turkey's foreign policy in the 1990s, considering the ability of the country to withstand the repercussions of the fall of communism. It focuses on Turkey's achievement in halting and minimising the effects of the temporary devaluation in its strategic importance that resulted from the waning of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the skilful way in which Turkey avoided becoming embroiled in the ethnic upheavals in Central Asia, the Balkans and the Middle East, and the development of a continued policy of closer integration into the European and western worlds. Internal politics are the focus of the second part of the book, addressing the curbing of the Kurdish revolt, the economic gains made, and the strengthening of civil society. Nachmani goes on to analyse the prospects for Turkey in the twenty-first century, in the light of the possible integration into Europe, which may leave the country's leadership free to deal effectively with domestic issues. This book will make crucial reading for anyone studying Turkish politics, or indeed European or European Union politics.

Debating Security in Turkey: Challenges and Changes in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Ebru Canan-Sokullu, gives a detailed account of the strategic security agenda facing Turkey in an era of uncertainty and swift transformation in global politics, and regional and local dynamics. The contributors to this volume describe the challenges and changes that Turkey encounters in the international, regional, and national environment at a time of extraordinary flux. This study provides a framework for Turkish security agenda locating it in theoretical discussions, and developing a conceptual framework of security challenges to Turkey, and to a broader region where the country and its interests are located. The book positions Turkey in the new global security order addressing a multidimensional political agenda, and points to the need not only to elaborate on the overall evaluation of Turkey's political affairs--domestic and foreign-- but also to trace a critical conjuncture of transatlantic relations, its recent role in the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia, and bid for full membership in the EU within the security context. Finally, the contributors reflect upon where Turkey's security challenges and prospects stand from internal and external perspectives with an interactive foreign policy assessment. Debating Security in Turkey is an essential contribution to the literature of Turkish national security, and the effects of that security in the region.