This book describes the historical background of the Middle East and, in particular, Turkey, prior to the end of World War II. It takes up the various steps taken by the United States to combat Soviet moves after the war to take over this strategic area. It describes the inception of the Truman Doctrine to rearm and strengthen Greece and Turkey in the face of British withdrawal, the unsuccessful efforts made by the United States and Britain to establish a Middle East command or defense organisation, and the successful U.S. efforts to get Turkey into NATO, which blocked Soviet entry. '...Ambassador McGhee has chronicled the events which led to Turkey's accession to NATO with great clarity and in a most interesting and readable fashion. He throws a fascinating light on the relationship between the United States of America and Turkey and the personalities involved. This book not only deserves to be read, but it deserves study by all of those who are interested in Defence and Foreign Affairs.' Lord Carrington
Turkey is a rising regional and global power facing, as is the United States, the challenges of political transitions in the Middle East, bloodshed in Syria, and Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. As a result, it is incumbent upon the leaders of the United States and Turkey to define a new partnership "in order to make a strategic relationship a reality," says a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)-sponsored Independent Task Force.
The strategic relationship between the United States and Turkey is over. While Turkey remains formally a NATO ally, it is not a partner of the United States. The United States should not be reluctant to oppose Turkey directly when Ankara undermines U.S. policy.
The study of politics in Turkey : new horizons and perennial pitfalls / Güneş Murat Tezcür -- Democratization theories and Turkey / Ekrem Karakoç -- Ruling ideologies in modern Turkey / Kerem Öktem -- Constitutionalism in Turkey / Aslı Ü. Bâli -- Civil-military relations and the demise of Turkish democracy / Nil S. Satana and Burak Bilgehan Özpek -- Capturing secularism in Turkey : the ease of comparison / Murat Akan -- The political economy of Turkey since the end of World War II / Şevket Pamuk -- Neoliberal politics in Turkey / Sinan Erensü and Yahya M. Madra -- The politics of welfare in Turkey / Erdem Yörük -- The political economy of environmental policymaking in Turkey : a vicious cycle / Fikret Adaman, Bengi Akbulut, and Murat Arsel -- The politics of energy in Turkey : running engines on geopolitical, discursive, and coercive power / Begüm Özkaynak, Ethemcan Turhan, and Cem İskender Aydın -- The contemporary politics of health in Turkey : diverse actors, competing frames, and uneven policies / Volkan Yılmaz -- Populism in Turkey : historical and contemporary patterns / Yüksel Taşkın -- Old and new polarizations and failed democratizations in Turkey / Murat Somer -- Economic voting during the AKP era in Turkey / S. Erdem Aytaç -- Party organizations in Turkey and their consequences for democracy / Melis G. Laebens -- The evolution of conventional political participation in Turkey / Ersin Kalaycıoğlu -- Symbolic politics and contention in the Turkish Republic / Senem Aslan -- Islamist activism in Turkey / Menderes Çınar -- The Kurdish movement in Turkey : understanding everyday perceptions and experiences / Dilan Okcuoglu -- The Transnational Mobilization of the Alevis of Turkey : from invisibility to the struggle for equality / Ceren Lord -- Politics of asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey : limits and prospects of populism / Fatih Resul Kılınç and Şule Toktaş -- A theoretical account of Turkish foreign policy under the AKP / Tarık Oğuzlu -- US-Turkey relations since WWII : from alliance to transactionalism / Serhat Güvenç and Soli Özel -- Turkey and Europe : historical asynchronicities and perceptual asymmetries / Hakan Yılmaz -- Turkey's foreign policy in the Middle East : an identity perspective / Lisel Hintz -- Turkey and Russia : historical patterns and contemporary trends in bilateral relations / Evren Balta and Mitat Çelikpala -- Citizenship and protest behavior in Turkey / Ayhan Kaya -- Gender politics and the struggle for equality in Turkey / Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat -- Human rights organizations in Turkey / Başak Çalı -- Truth, justice, and commemoration initiatives in Turkey / Onur Bakiner -- The politics of media in Turkey : chronicle of a stillborn media system / Sarphan Uzunoğlu -- The AKP's rhetoric of rule in Turkey : political melodramas of conspiracy from "ergenekon" to "mastermind" / Erdağ Göknar -- The transformation of political cinema in Turkey since the 1960s : a change of discourse / Zeynep Çetin-Erus and M. Elif Demoğlu -- Political music in Turkey : the birth and diversification of dissident and conformist music (1920-2000) / Mustafa Avcı.
This report is the product of a year-long joint effort by the Center for Strategic Research (SAM) at the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of Turkey and the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In addition to examining the opportunities and challenges the two countries have confronted in the past six decades of their alliance, it also looks ahead to those the relationship is likely to face in the future.
Nearly all of the previous scholarship on Turkey and U.S. relations cover the Cold War period as well as current affairs with regard to security, strategy, and defense. Hence, the literature abounds with military orientation. This edited volume builds on a historical perspective and focuses on foreign relations, diplomacy, actors, mutual perceptions and reciprocity in diplomatic relations within the framework of the world conjuncture in the 1920s and 1930s. Relations with the U.S.A. have served as a balance in Turkey's Euro-Atlantic policy long before NATO was established. Likewise, re-building relations with the Republic of Turkey served U.S. interests in opening to the Near East and thus breaking away from its much lauded isolationist policy between the two world wars. Thus, the picture that emerges here is just as much a history of U.S. diplomacy as it is of Turkey.
