ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the framework for applying the conditionality mechanism to the case of Turkey. The chapter first presents the ‘misfit’ between Turkish foreign policy and the EU’s requirements, drawing from the historical legacies and political cultures of the two actors. It then moves on by introducing the indicators to assess the direction and magnitude of change across the formal, behavioural and discursive dimensions in the normative and substantive areas. Finally, the chapter proceeds to operationalise the EU’s conditionality mechanism and its independent variables: clarity of the EU demands, credibility of incentives, domestic capacity, and veto players. In this section, hypotheses are presented for each variable, along with the evidence needed to verify or disprove them. In doing so, it provides a concise outline of the historical development of EU foreign policy and a brief overview of the Turkish political context. Most importantly, this chapter provides a concise outline of the history of EU–Turkey relations to date.
