The Turkish foreign policy decision making process during the Cold War, 1945-1991

Abstract

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of decision making in Turkish foreign policy during the Cold War through the evaluation of the impact of Turkish domestic politics on Turkish foreign policy. The main objective of the thesis is to elaborate the impact of the actors that were involved in the processes of major decisions, e.g., the Cyprus conflict, the first Gulf War, and the dynamics that shaped the decisions of these actors. The conjuncture of the Cold War and the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union form the contextual framework of Turkish foreign policy. In this contextual framework, the study concentrates on the actors of Turkish foreign policy, e.g., presidents, prime ministers, ministers of foreign affairs, the parliament, the military, the press and the public opinion. The decisions of these actors are analyzed in the light of the impact of the Turkish economy, Turkish constitutional and legal structure, the structure of governments and the parliament, the crises of Turkish politics especially in the period between 1960 and 1980. The thesis concludes that although the Cold War was a rivalry between the capitalist and communist blocs, the foreign policy behaviors within these blocs were not homogenous. Therefore, as a state within the capitalist bloc throughout this struggle, the Cold War perception of Turkish foreign policy was not identical to that of the other members of the Western bloc and it was also influenced by its domestic politics.