The first enlargement of NATO in 1952, to include Turkey and Greece, integrated the eastern Mediterranean with west European strategic planning and consolidated the American presence in the region. At the end of the millennium, Turkey's inclusion in NATO seems natural, given Soviet pressure against the country in 1945-46 and its geostrategic position. Yet in the early post-war period this was not a foregone conclusion in the minds of policy-makers in Washington and, particularly, in London, despite Ankara's relentless efforts after 1947 to obtain an American security guarantee.

At a time when the European Union is further expanding and countries such as Turkey are being accepted for eventual membership, the question of what is meant by a unified Europe and how that might be achieved has never been more pressing. Europe is more than a system of rules and political institutions that regulate European citizenship: it is also a space of political traditions, political experiences and cultural memories. Can political integration ever be realised without an understanding and acceptance of the complexity of the political cultures that make up Europe ? In this important...

Taking the period from the end of the 1970s to the end of the 1990s, this book critically examines the evolution of the strategic relationship between the US and Turkey during this period, with a particular focus on the Middle Eastern context.

Strategic Relations Between the US and Turkey employs interviews with US, Turkish and Israeli officials and archival research in order to offer an alternative reading of the realities that shaped bilateral co-operation through multi-level analysis. The unraveling of these realities enlightens the reader about the past...