Turkish Society and Foreign Policy in Troubled Times

摘要

In 1999, at the previous RAND-GCSP workshop in Geneva, participants took up the topic of NATO and Middle Eastern security. With changes in Europe, the Gulf and the Middle East peace process, Turkey's pivotal role in relation to both European and Middle Eastern security emerged as a consistent theme. The workshop organizers came away from that meeting convinced of the need to consider Turkey's regional role in more detail. The April 2001 workshop on Turkey was the result. In the months before the meeting, the importance of Turkey's future was underscored by a series of financial crises, posing formidable economic and political challenges for Turks, and for Turkey's partners in the West. There is a strong sense among observers in Turkey, in Europe and in the United States, that Turkey has reached a critical crossroads, and that decisions taken in the next months will shape the country's future for decades to come.