ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the significance and importance of the Iran–Turkey security and economic engagement with the United States, especially during the early decades of the Cold War and pre-1979 period. The changing dynamics of the international system enforce regional countries' relations with the United States, which have been both competitive and hostile. The chapter explains how great power security interests affect regional middle power relations through the cases of Iran and Turkey. In defining client and proxy state relations between Iran and Turkey, it emphasizes the interaction capacities of both regional middle powers and also explains their competitive capacity to gain leverage in establishing alliance relations with great powers such as the United States. The chapter focuses on the systemic level in order to explain the "patron-proxy," "patron-client," and "proxy-client" state security relations. Turkish political elites felt that the political influence of Soviet Russia in Iran could be construed as an eternal threat to Turkey's national security.