A New Turkish–American Partnership in Progress: The Nature of Bilateral Partnership during Two Periods of Crisis

Abstract

Twenty-two years after the end of the Cold War, Turkey and the USA are still in search of a framework to stabilize their mutual partnership. Although the USA–Turkey relationship has shown signs of stability under the Obama administration, there is still ambivalence about its future, due to the evolving international system, transformations in the Middle East and changes in the domestic politics of both countries. The Iranian nuclear programme and the war in Iraq (2003) have demonstrated that a bilateral relationship is more prone to crisis when the two countries have differing objectives and security interests. These crises can be contained, however, when an institutional framework of cooperation is established and when there is effective communication between the countries' leaders. In this sense, the absence of an institutionalized cooperation and a lack of personal rapport between Turkish and American leaders during the crisis of Iraq in 2003 led to a major crisis of bilateral relations. On the other hand, the existence of both an institutional framework of cooperation and effective communication during the dispute over the Iranian nuclear programme in 2010 resulted in the containment of the crisis. As such, these two crises may demonstrate the effectiveness of these factors in the future stability of the USA–Turkey partnership in the emerging uni–multipolar international order.