Turkey's changing security discourses: the challenge of globalisation

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the ways in which Turkey's security discourses have been shaped by, and have sought to shape, the transformation Turkey has gone through in recent years. It was as a part of the process of joining the European Union (EU) that the challenge of globalised security was strongly felt in Turkey. Since the Helsinki decision of 1999 to include Turkey in the list of official candidates, there emerged an elite-level debate regarding the security implications of the reforms demanded by the EU. Whereas the 'Eurosceptics' have underlined the need for a broad security agenda by making references to 'globalised security' while seeking to shape practices in defense of 'national security', the 'pro-EU' actors have opened up Turkey's definition of 'national security' for debate thereby sowing the seeds of an alternative security discourse. The article falls into three sections. The first section discusses the relationship between security and globalisation and gives examples from the Turkish case. The second section looks at the 'traditional' discourse on security that has prevailed during the Republican era. The third section seeks to identify the changes in the 1990s in Turkey's security discourses by focusing on the debates on the EU. The article concludes by considering the likelihood of further changes in Turkey's security discourses.