The Middle East in Turkey-USA Relations: Managing the Alliance

2013-06-01
The Middle East has been increasingly factoring into the relations between Turkey and the USA since the end of the cold war. Ironically, the issues related to this region simultaneously intensify and erode the bilateral relations. For the USA, the significance of Turkey has always related to some extent to the Middle East. For Turkey, on the other hand, during the cold war years this connection was not always welcomed. In the aftermath of the cold war, the Middle East became one of the most significant elements of the alliance, a development that was accepted by both sides. The changes in the international arena, such as the end of bipolarity and post-9/11 developments as well as regional changes, particularly the Iraqi crises, Iranian nuclear issue, the Arab uprisings and changes in the regional balance of power, had an impact on the evolution of AmericanTurkish relations and created both convergence and divergence of interests. Finally, domestic politics, especially the ideology and policies of state actors, had a bearing on bilateral relations in the context of the Middle East. As Turkey became more active and developed particular interests in the Middle East, the crises in TurkeyUSA relations began to occur more frequently and led to bargaining processes between the two allies.
Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies

Suggestions

Turkey and Turkic Nations: A Post-Cold War Analysis of Relations
Çınar, Süleyman Kürşat (Informa UK Limited, 2013-06-01)
Turkish foreign policy has experienced massive alterations after the end of Cold War. This has been most evident in Turkey's relations with Turkic nations in Central Asia and the Caucasus, all of which gained independence from the USSR. This article aims to provide a thorough analysis on this issue. First, the article explores the ethnicity concept and applies it to the relations between Turkey and Turkic nations. Then, it examines Turkey's relations with other regional and international powers, namely Russ...
Europeanization of foreign policy: the case of Turkish foreign policy towards the Black Sea region
Ustun, Cigdem (Informa UK Limited, 2010-01-01)
Turkey's efforts to initiate an active foreign policy towards the Black Sea region in the 1990s were scuttled by Russian influence and an international environment inconducive to multilateralism. When security needs changed in the twenty-first century and the enlargement of the EU reached the Black Sea, a multilateral approach was developed for the region by local and international actors, i.e., the EU and Turkey. In this framework, this article aims to show the changes observed in Turkish foreign policy to...
The Otherness of Turkey in European Integration
Ertuğrul, Kürşad; Akcalı Yılmaz, Öznur (Informa UK Limited, 2018-01-01)
This paper discusses how Turkey's otherness to European identity, as represented by the European Union (EU), was turned into an asset during the beginning of the AKP rule. To the extent that the AKP represented the Islamic cultural other against both the secular establishment of Turkey and the EU, its promise to fulfill the Copenhagen political criteria and adopt EU norms and standards provided a possibility of a model' for the EU. This was the promise of a self-transforming cultural other becoming a part o...
The Plight of Iraq's Mandaeans and Honderich's Principle of Humanity
Nashi, Suhaib; Bolender, John (SAGE Publications, 2009-06-01)
Due to persecution, Sabean Mandaeans have fled Iraq in large numbers. Although there is widespread suffering and vulnerability in Iraq, the Mandaeans are a special case, since they have no safe enclave within Iraq to which they can return and their pacifism makes them especially vulnerable to violence. Ted Honderich's Principle of Humanity is used to argue that countries able to do so, meaning wealthy Western nations in particular, should take steps to guarantee the Mandaeans a safe homeland where they can ...
Approaches to Turkish Foreign Policy: A Critical Realist Analysis
Yalvaç, Faruk (Informa UK Limited, 2014-01-02)
This article analyses different approaches to Turkish foreign policy (TFP) from a critical realist perspective. It seeks to criticize positivist and post-positivist approaches to TFP, arguing for a non-reductionist, historical materialist approach based on the principles of critical realism. It argues that historical materialist approaches are missing both from the analysis of TFP and from the mainstream foreign-policy analysis in general. In emphasizing the importance of a historical materialist approach, ...
Citation Formats
M. Altunışık, “The Middle East in Turkey-USA Relations: Managing the Alliance,” Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, pp. 157–173, 2013, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/41010.