Turkey’s changing security perceptions and expenditures in the 2000s: Substitutes or complements?

Abstract

This article explains changes in Turkey’s security perceptions after the current ruling party, the AKP, came to power. It focuses on how Turkey tried to change the structure of conflictual relations with countries it has long viewed as sources of threat. Focusing on Syria, especially, the article delineates economic tools for conflict reduction and regional integration employed by Turkey and analyzes the challenges and main obstacles that the Turkish government has faced, especially after the Arab spring upheavals. The article then devotes attention to Turkey’s military modernization efforts launched to cope with the new threat environment and from there moves on to elaborate on the effect of security policy preferences and design on Turkish security-related resource allocation since the early 2000s. The intermingled nature of internal and external security policies calls for broadening the context of the economic aspects of security to include police, gendarmerie, and coast guard services along with the military. Descriptive analysis of on-budget components and off-budget facilities shed light on Turkey’s recent position in the international arena as an important military spender and arms importer.