ABSTRACT
The world at the end of the twentieth century has been sharply buffeted by geopolitical change unparalleled in scope since World War I. The collapse of communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union have not only spawned fifteen new states in the world, but have brought the global Cold War to an end, unleashing major new waves of nationalism and separatism in many other states, of which Yugoslavia is only the most dramatic example. Turkey has been among those states most immediately affected by the changing environment. Geopolitics and Turkey's pro-Western orientation rapidly won Turkey a prominent role within North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). That role has shifted drastically. Even though the end of the Cold War sharply diminishes the place of NATO, Turkey's growing importance is much more powerfully defined by its centrality to regions of major instability and conflagration in which the long-range policies of Turkey could undergo significant and unprecedented change.
