Turkey’s Air Defense Agenda | A Challenging Path

This study is designed to deliver background information, to lay bare the course of the S-400 procurement process, and to provide the reasoning to better understand the responses to the famous five “wh” and “how” questions.

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The issue of the S-400s has turned out to be a turning point between the USA and Turkey in testing the strength of their long-lasting partnership. Although both are deeply involved in searching for a way out, the probable “dead-end” is still a challenging factor for their alliance. On the other hand, the problematic fields in question, which are actually the iceberg lurking underneath the surface, make the S-400 dispute the iconic interface. Both countries have long experienced controversy after a series of events that have occurred over the last two decades. Within this context, Turkey’s S-400 procurement and the threats by U.S. political figures -mainly the expulsion of Turkey from the F-35 Fighter Jet program - escalated tension between the two traditional allies. As Turkey received the S-400 air defense system, it has been vital to refresh the “whats” and “whys” in order to facilitate assessments. This study is designed to deliver background information, to lay bare the course of the S-400 procurement process, and to provide the reasoning to better understand the responses to the famous five “wh” and “how” questions.

MURAT ASLAN

He graduated from War College in the field of Management in 1991. He assumed varying tasks and appointments in the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). He graduated from Master’s (2010) and PhD programs (2017) in the International Relations Department of the Middle Eastern Technical University. He scrutinized the Chinese soft power practices through cultural diffusion efforts and African policy for a Master’s degree. His Ph. D. research was about intelligence and propaganda efforts in peace-oriented undertakings based on the UN and NATO practices in Bosnia and Afghanistan. His studies are primarily on the security and defence studies, the conceptualization of power, intelligence and propaganda practices. He had been commissioned to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bosnia, facilitating the comparison of theory and practice when he was in Service. The primary region he has been interested in is the Middle East; he had monitored wider Afghanistan, Balkans, the USA, and China as the secondary academic effort. He was a faculty member of the Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University of Turkey after teaching as a visiting scholar at Başkent University. He is currently a faculty member at Hasan Kalyoncu University and a Researcher in SETA Foundation. Aslan is the author of the boks - Security Sector Reform for Libya: A Cruical Step Towards State Building, The Crisis of the Hundred Years: Afghanistan, Intelligence and Propaganda: The Cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Afghanistan, other than academic and scholarly articles.

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