The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Center for Strategic Research (SAM) of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a comprehensive report examining U.S. – Turkey relations in the post-Cold War era.
The report stresses that the U.S. and Turkey “are enjoying a new cooperative era in their relationship. Their partnership has recently been enhanced by overlapping perspectives on the unprecedented transformation sweeping the Middle East as well as in a number of other regional and functional areas.” But, the authors caution that “the future of the alliance… will be determined to a great extent by the ability of the two countries to maximize their convergence and minimize their divergence in a number of areas of common interest, in particular the Middle East.”
The authors,
Bulent Aliriza and Bulent Aras write: “The partnership between the United States and Turkey… has gone through constant adjustment since the beginning of the post–Cold War era. The current turmoil in the Middle East has served as a stark reminder to both Washington and Ankara of their shared interests and complementary strategic perspectives… However, the relationship is not without its problems. Significant points of divergence in their perspectives, as well as policies, remain… Like every relationship, the evolving partnership between the United States and Turkey has the potential for improvement as well as deterioration. Consequently, while responding to [regional] developments, Washington and Ankara need to bear in mind that the alignment of their interests in security, stability, and democratization requires them to work in tandem as much
as possible.”
Read the report here: “U.S. – Turkey Relations: A Review at the Beginning of the Third Decade of the Post–Cold War Era.”