The Clash of Roles in the Middle East; Understanding the Tension in US-Turkey Relations

This article seeks to provide a systematic understanding of tension in US-Turkish relations by creating a link between structural changes in the international system and changes in a declining hegemon relationship with an emerging regional power in the Middle East. The hypothesis of the paper is that the instability in US-Turkish relations is the output of the transition from the post-Cold American order to the post-American disorder in the geopolitics of the Middle East. Indeed, the shift in the balance of international power has changed US leaders' perceptions of America's Middle East role and reduced its strategic commitment to shaping the region's geopolitical order. This has changed Ankara's perception of Turkey's Middle East role and pursuing independent strategies to redefine its status as an order-maker regional power. Therefore, the collision of Middle Eastern roles of the two traditional allies in the context of transition in international system can explain the logic of tension and instability in US-Turkish relations. Role theory is the theoretical framework of this paper upon which changing the role of exterior actor in a region results in a different social structure in the geopolitical order of that region and consequently change in the role of regional powers.