Author: Dr W Andrew Terrill
Key Insights:
• Turkish accession to the European Union (EU) remains a central question in determining the future of Turkish relations with Western Europe and the United States. Any support that the United States can give to the acceleration of Turkish accession will be valuable and helpful to these ties.
• While U.S.-Turkish relations have undergone severe strain as a result of difference over the Iraq war, there is considerable potential for improvement. Turkish public opinion is not inflexibly anti-American, and the Turkish public strongly differentiates among various American politicians and policies which are viewed with either approval or disapproval.
• Turkey continues to view NATO as a vital institution despite the end of the Cold War and differences with the United States over the Iraq War.
• Turkey has continued to implement the much more activist and involved policy toward the Middle East that it began in 1991.