Democratic Control and Military Effectiveness of the Turkish Armed Forces

Eldem, Tuba

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-53189-2_9

Tuba Eldem³

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3 Citations

Abstract

Adopting a strategic relational approach, this chapter shows how—despite Turkey’s unfavorable initial conditions—external pressures differentially empowering civilians provided resources these civilians needed to break the stabilizing mechanisms of path-dependence in civil-military relations. The ability of civilians to overcome path-dependence were enhanced by over a decade of rule by a stable majority government with a strong will to erode the political clout of the military. Having successfully defanged the Turkish military and consolidated its hold on power, the civilian leadership’s interest in defense and military reform has, however, faded in the last few years. In addition to second-generation problems of constructing effective civilian-led defense policy-making with broader civil society input, as well as strengthening legislative oversight, Turkey today also faces the twin challenges of restoring the morale and corporate esteem of the officers and rebuilding a working relationship between military and civilian leaders based on mutual trust.

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Department of International Relations, Istanbul Gedik University, Istanbul, Turkey
Tuba Eldem

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Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
Aurel Croissant
Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
David Kuehn

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Eldem, T. (2017). Democratic Control and Military Effectiveness of the Turkish Armed Forces. In: Croissant, A., Kuehn, D. (eds) Reforming Civil-Military Relations in New Democracies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53189-2_9

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53189-2_9
Published: 22 March 2017
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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