ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on geopolitical representations of Turkey's cuspness by Turkish foreign and security policy makers, both as a discourse and in practice. It discusses the construction of the geographical representation of Turkey's cuspness by the state actors. The chapter then addresses the question of practical implications and provides an account of four cases in the post-Cold War era and some consistent features of the practical geopolitical reasoning within them. The geopolitical representation of Turkey's cuspness has been an important part of Ahmet Davutoglu's thinking. Geopolitical narratives that emphasized opportunities in the newly opened geopolitical spaces for Turkey had developed previously, but under Davutoglu the most elaborate articulation of Turkey's geopolitics emerged one that linked geography, history and identity. Thus, Turkey is geographically part of both the Middle East and Asia, on the one hand, and Europe on the other. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War had an impact on Turkey's cuspness.
