The US, EU and Turkey triangle: American support in Turkey's accession talks with the EU

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1606761 (Table of Contents)

This research answers the question of what shaped the US support for Turkish membership in the EU and the reasons behind this support between the 1990s and early the 2000s in order to be able to elaborate on the future of Turkey as a candidate country. Studies do exist in the literature, which strive to reveal the importance of US influence in world politics or its support in bilateral relations between the European Union and Turkey. However, this thesis furthers previous studies by (1) providing a credible path within the multi-dimensional framework of neorealism and (2) benefitting from the APP data to elaborate on shifting American support in EU-Turkey bilateral relations across time. With the above-mentioned aim, this thesis first introduces neorealism as the overarching theory of this study. Then it reviews Turkey-EU and Turkey-US bilateral relations to emphasize the emerging shift between European and American perspectives on Turkey after the Cold War while underscoring the essence of this study; American support in Turkey’s accession to the EU. In detail, this work discusses how the shifted international system and changing relations of the US, heralded as the hegemon of the international system, affected American attempts to support Turkey in European circles and examines the reasons behind the American support during the 1990s and the early 2000s. With the adoption of neorealism as the theoretical framework, this thesis aims to focus on the significance of Turkey’s relations with the EU for the US security interests. Additionally, this thesis constitutes the first quantitative study, which intends to evaluate the primary form of US support to Turkey in official and non-official European circles during the 1990s and the early 2000s.