This policy brief by Kadir Ustun and Kilic Kanat was published by the SETA Foundation on February 1, 2013.
Today, a new Turkey as a regional power is faced with a new US effort to reconsider its role in the region and around the globe. Turkey’s relations with the United States over the last decade witnessed wild swings and shifts. Turkey’s past decade under the AK Party coincided with the US invasion of Iraq, the financial meltdown in the US (which transformed into a global economic crisis) as well as a relative decline of the US stature in the world. This period also overlapped with dramatic changes in the Middle East, as the ousting of longstanding authoritarian leaders led to the emergence of a generation of new leaders across the Arab world. Today, a new Turkey as a regional power is faced with a new US effort to reconsider its role in the region and around the globe. In this analysis, our goal is to take a broad view of the AK Party decade in US-Turkey relations and contribute to the debates on the future of the relationship and its potential implications for the region.
Kadir Ustun 