Turkey’s new orientation and reconstruction of its national security architecture post April 16 referendum will be an important anchor of domestic and regional stability. In this sense, Turkey needs a more comprehensive, long-term and realistic national security strategy. In order to develop such a strategy; Turkey first and foremost should determine its capacity to deter the threats emanating mainly from regional insecurities. Turkey’s defense and security strategies require agile, network-centric forces capable of taking action from a determined front line, rapidly and flexibly projecting its military power to reinforce weak regions and counteracting threats, especially those consisting of non-state military actors, swiftly and decisively while defending Turkish soil from offensive action. Such a military force in this new era for Turkey is also essential for deterring conflict on home territory as well as abroad and for assuring Turkey’s commitment to a peaceful and stable region.
Although Turkey’s military power today has significant advantages in comparison to the other regional actors, Turkey is challenged by newly emerging threats that pose tremendous risks in terms of its national security. The new insecurity trends, especially at the regional level, facilitate other state/non-state actors in challenging Turkey. However, Turkey is also faced with multiple nonconventional threats and risks that the wider globe has experienced. Hence Turkey appears to be the touchstone in identification and response implementation with regard to threats for the well-being of Turkey as well as the entire globe. This reality makes Turkey an indispensable partner for the international community in the sustaining of stability in the framework of structure-agent interdependency. In this light, Turkey is not a peripheral security agency, but at the central position in the pendulum of security and insecurity of the current international politics.
