ABSTRACT
The international and domestic context of Turkish-American relations underwent major changes during the course of the 1990s. The end of the Cold War and the global strategic rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union radically altered the structure of the international system that had been in existence since World War II. For more than four decades, the close military and political ties between the US and Turkey had largely been the product of the strategic rivalry between the two superpowers and the bipolar configuration of the international system. During the Cold War years, Washington and Ankara shared similar perceptions regarding the nature and implications of the threat posed by the former Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. For the US, Turkey served as an important strategic outpost in close proximity to its superpower rival and a key ally in NATO's southern flank. For Turkey, the forging of close military and political relations with the US through bilateral and multilateral ties represented a critical deterrent against the perceived Soviet threat. Consequently, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the end of the bipolar international system, and the transforma tion of the political landscape of Eurasia marked a fundamental change in the international and regional context of the US-Turkey relations.
