A U.S. Perspective on Turkey in the Middle East

For most of the 20th century, the relationship between the United States and Turkey was one grounded primarily, if not exclusively, in Cold War concerns. Turkey was an early and important member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and strategically positioned both at the periphery of the Soviet Union, and in the historic intersection of Europe and the Middle East.

Over the past 10 years, as Turkey’s foreign policy has evolved under the “zero problems” doctrine of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutog- lu, U.S. analysts and policymakers, while still very much convinced of Turkey’s importance, do not seem to have arrived at a solid consensus over what is driving that evolution, or that evolution’s endpoint. Therefore no solid consensus yet exists over what the future of the U.S.-Turkey relationship will be. There is considerable agreement, however, that the relationship will continue to be a very consequential one for the United States, and thus that U.S. policy should reflect this.

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This article was originally published in Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation.