ABSTRACT
Although not one of the great powers of the twentieth century, its geopolitical
location has enabled Turkey to play a potentially higher role in world politics
than otherwise would have been possible.1 It not only holds the key to the
Turkish Straits but sits astride the roads from the Balkans to the Middle East and
from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf. It is a member of the largest surviving
military bloc, that is, NATO, as well as an associate member of the European
Union (EU). Its political involvement and exposed position assign an importance
hardly matched by any other middle power. Further, it successfully expanded its
strategic importance in general amidst the dust created by the important
systemic changes in world politics since the end of the Cold War in 1989. Thus
Turkey has, once more, emerged as an important actor, poised to play a leading
role across a vast region extending ‘from eastern Europe to western China’.2
