Author： Robins Philip
Publisher： Routledge Ltd
ISSN： 1362-9395
Source： Mediterranean Politics, Vol.12, Iss.1, 2007-03, pp. : 17-38
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Abstract
Turkish-US ties came close to crisis in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war, thereby defying the conventional analysis which views the relationship as essentially cooperative. This occurred because experts have based their assessment of the alliance on too selective a view of the historical relationship. This article focuses on a neglected but important issue from the recent past, the opium case of the early 1970s, which provides a more comparable analogy to the 2002-03 Iraq crisis. The paper adopts a thematically analytical approach to the two cases, identifying four factors - national sovereignty, systemic contestation, democratic legitimacy and clientelist reciprocity - as crucial in explaining why the expected cooperation was not forthcoming. More broadly, the article argues that such fundamental issues of domestic importance have to be taken seriously by US foreign policymakers if they wish to galvanize high profile cooperation, even with those regional powers that are already their allies.
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