A Changing European Security and Defense Architecture and Its Impact on Turkey

Since the 1991 Maastricht Treaty, the European Union countries have been trying to form a common security and defense identity as one facet of the European Union unification process. The efforts to create separable but not separate European forces within NATO have accelerated in the last three years and changed direction toward creating an autonomous European Security and Defense Policy ESDP within the framework of the EU. This policy concerns some non-EU European NATO allies, such as Turkey, and Norway, as well as non-European NATO allies, such as the United States and Canada. The developments in the European security structure in the aftermath of the French-British St. Malo Declaration 1991 have profoundly changed the discussion of an all-European force. The ESDP is an evolving process. The impact of the latest developments on Turkeys position in the European security system and Turkeys security policies is significant. Turkish national security interests compel it to be part of a new European security system and of security arrangements in the post- Cold War era. Turkey should have some institutional links to European Security and Defense Policy that would enable it to influence the decisions of its European counterparts on the matters that could affect Turkeys interests. European security cannot be provided without Turkey. How Turkey will fit into the new European security system will depend on its European membership process, its unique geostrategic position and its special relationship with the United States.