Debating Security in Turkey: Challenges and Changes in the Twenty-First Century

Debating Security in Turkey: Challenges and Changes in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Ebru Canan-Sokullu, gives a detailed account of the strategic security agenda facing Turkey in an era of uncertainty and swift transformation in global politics, and regional and local dynamics. The contributors to this volume describe the challenges and changes that Turkey encounters in the international, regional, and national environment at a time of extraordinary flux. This study provides a framework for Turkish security agenda locating it in theoretical discussions, and developing a conceptual framework of security challenges to Turkey, and to a broader region where the country and its interests are located. The book positions Turkey in the new global security order addressing a multidimensional political agenda, and points to the need not only to elaborate on the overall evaluation of Turkey’s political affairs—domestic and foreign— but also to trace a critical conjuncture of transatlantic relations, its recent role in the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia, and bid for full membership in the EU within the security context. Finally, the contributors reflect upon where Turkey’s security challenges and prospects stand from internal and external perspectives with an interactive foreign policy assessment. Debating Security in Turkey is an essential contribution to the literature of Turkish national security, and the effects of that security in the region.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Debating Security, Changes and Challenges for Turkey in the Twenty-First Century by Ebru Canan-Sokullu Part 1. Approaches to 'Security' and 'Challenges' in the Twenty-First Century Chapter 1. 'Security' and 'Challenges' in the Twenty-First Century: A Theoretical Outlook by Craig Snyder Chapter 2. Insulator, Bridge, Regional Center? Turkey and Regional Security Complexes by Thomas Diez Chapter 3. Continuities and Changes in Turkish Foreign and Security Policy in the Twenty-First Century and the EU by Selcen Öner Part 2.Turkey and Internal Security Challenges in the Twenty-First Century Chapter 4. Beyond Military Tutelage? Civil-Military Relations and the AKP Government by Ismet Akça and Evren Balta-Paker Chapter 5. Islamization: A Challenge to Turkey’s Secular Democracy? by Selin Özoguz-Bolgi Part 3. Turkey and External Security Challenges in the Twenty-first Century Chapter 6. Turkey’s New Cyprus Policy: Transforming a Military Base to a Basin of Cooperation by Ahmet Sözen Chapter 7. Turkey’s Changing Relations with the Middle East: New Challenges and Opportunities in the 2000s by Özlem Tür Chapter 8. Switching Sides or Novel Force? Turkey’s Relations with Israel and the Palestinians by Nathalie Tocci Chapter 9. The Iraqi Conundrum: A Source of Insecurity for Turkey? by Armagan Gözkaman Chapter 10. Turkish-Russian Rapprochement and the Security Dialogue in the Black Sea-South Caucasus Region by Burcu Gültekin Punsmann Chapter 11. Energy Security and Turkey in Europe’s Neighborhood by Özgür Ünal Eris Part 4. The Euro-Atlantic Partnership in the Twenty-First Century Chapter 12. Security Challenges of Turkish-American Relations in the Post-Bush Era by Emre Iseri Chapter 13. Turkey as a Stakeholder and Contributor to Regional Security in the Western Balkans by Adam Balcer Chapter 14. Turkey and Greece: What Future for Rapprochement? by James Ker-Lindsay Chapter 15. Turkey’s Approach to Environmental Security: A Case for Soft Security by Rana Izci Chapter 16. Turkish Political Elite Perceptions on Security by Özgehan Senyuva and Çigdem Üstün, Conclusion: What Future for Security? Ebru Canan-Sokullu

About the Author :
Ebru Canan-Sokulluis assistant professor in the Department of Political Sciences and International Relations at Bahçesehir University, Istanbul.

Review :
This lucid, illuminating, incisive, well-researched, multi-authored book offers a remarkably comprehensive set of overviews and evaluations of the profound political and contextual changes that have taken place in Turkey since the 1980s, and of the resultant ‘paradigm shifts’ and ‘axis shifts’ in Turkey’s foreign and security policies and thinking during this period… It deserves to be widely read by students of, and commentators on, contemporary Turkey.