Insight Turkey
Insight Turkey
Challenging ideas
On Turkish politics and International affairs

Author

Mustafa Kibaroğlu

MEF University, Turkey
Mustafa Kibaroğlu
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: How to Make Sense of Turkey’s S-400 Choice?*
September 22, 2020
With the wrap-up of the S-400 deal with Russia in December 2017, critics argue that Turkey is caught between a rock and a hard place due to the adamant opposition of its NATO allies, the United States in particular, which has threatened Ankara with imposing severe sanctions. Would this be the correct representation of the situation at hand? Does it make any sense for Turkey to engage Russia, an archrival nation, to enhance the security of the country? Is the S-400 deal worth the risk of alienating the allied nations whose projected sanctions may have wide-ranging political, economic and military repercussions? With these questions in mind, this paper will try to shed light on the specifics of the S-400 deal that make one think that it may indeed make sense for Turkey to bear the brunt of engaging Russia. In the same vein, the paper will assess the impact of the S-400 deal on Turkey’s defense industries. The paper will also present the author’s conception of the current “international political non-order” as an underlying factor behind the deal. Finally, the paper will suggest that the S-400 deal must be approached from a wider perspective so as to grasp the extent of the service it has done in bolstering Turkey’s military-industrial complex.
Calling for a Reset in Turkish-American Relations in the post-COVID International Order
July 3, 2020
Analysts emphasize that nothing will be the same after the pandemic and refer to the ‘new normal’ that is likely to prevail everywhere in the world. It would be a legitimate question to ask if this would provide a conducive environment for Turkey and the United States to reset their relations that have much deteriorated lately. This article will, first, highlight the contours of the ‘new normal’ narrative by referring to the views expressed by politicians, academics, analysts, journalists and intellectuals from around the world. Second, the article will assess the implications of the parameters of the ‘new normal’ for key actors in world politics, such as the United States, China, the European Union and Russia, as well as Turkey’s Middle Eastern neighbors, with respect to the issues that will be at stake in the international security environment. Finally, the article will make a call for a reset in Turkish-American relations in order for the two long-standing allies to adapt themselves better to post-COVID international politics.
Mr. Trump, Post Nuclear Ban Treaty, NATO’s Nuclear Weapons in Europe are Obsolete
July 10, 2017
This commentary makes the case as to why the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons that have been stationed in Europe since the 1960s should be removed, and how this could be done in the most effective way under the presidency of Donald Trump. It concludes with a summary of the expected benefits of this move, and a reminder that the costs of continued muddling through are substantial.
Debating Security in Turkey: Challenges and Changes in the Twenty-First Century
October 1, 2013
Interest in Turkey and its foreign and security policies has grown significantly in the political and scholarly circles in the world, especially since the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – AKP) came to power with the November 2002 elections. The AKP’s electoral success continued in the subsequent elections in 2007 and 2011 with an increasing percentage of votes, which was unprecedented in the history of the Turkish Republic.

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