NATO-Turkey Relations: From Collective Defence to Collective Security

Abstract

This chapter seeks to highlight the mutually constitutive role of NATO-Turkey relations in the construction of their respective identities, built on three distinct yet interrelated factors: NATO’s security identities during and after the Cold War; its approach to resorting to force besides its actual practices of force in the post–Cold War era; and Turkey’s role in collective defence/deterrence, and its participation in NATO out-of-area/collective security operations. Accordingly, it argues that Ankara’s enthusiastic assumption of a major role in the Alliance’s deterrence strategy against the Soviet Union in its southern flank during the Cold War, and keen Turkish participation in NATO out-of-area/collective security operations from 1990 onwards have constituted a context of social interaction that led to particular identities and certain security policy outputs for both.