From Westernization to De-Westernization: Turkish-American relations in Historical Perspective of the 1940s — 2010s

Abstract

The paper analyzes the nonlinear dynamics of Turkish-American relations in the historical perspective of the last seven decades (from the 1940s up to the late 2010s). The development of Turkish-American relations demonstrates an interesting paradox — the same factors that made the two countries closer led to the divergence of the two “strategic partners”. The paper explores the current crisis of Turkish-American relations in three interrelated dimensions: as a decline of the «Turkish model», as an erosion of the institutional solidarity within NATO, and as strategic divergence in perceptions of regional and international security threats.