The Missing Piece of the Puzzle: The EMASYA Protocol and Civil-Military Relations in Turkey

The civil-military relations literature on Turkey focuses predominantly on the guardianship role of the Turkish military, its interventions, and the role of the National Security Council as the main institutional mechanism of military tutelage. Yet, the existing studies lack a much-needed focus on the law enforcement or policing missions of the Turkish military. To fill this gap, this study discusses the EMASYA Protocol ( Emniyet Asayiş Yardımlaşma or Security and Public Order Assistance), a secret protocol signed in 1997. Emerging in the context of political instability and military tutelage of the 1990s, the Protocol enabled the military to conduct internal security operations without permission from the civilian authorities. This paper argues that the EMASYA Protocol provided a sphere of “reformulated new professionalism” for the Turkish military, enabled it to specialize in the war against rising internal threats such as reactionary Islam and Kurdish separatism, and created anomalies in civil-military relations in Turkey.

“Staff Reserve” of De-Escalation: M. Rojansky on American-Russian Relations

The article is devoted to the analysis of the political, scientific and practical activities of the director of the Kennan Institute, Matthew Rojanski. In the context of the statements of the Biden administration on the need to de-escalate US-Russian relations and taking into account the attempt to appoint Rozhansky to the post of Russia Director on the US National Security Council, the evolution of his worldview, the system of views on the modern world order, the role of Russia in the contemporary world and nature of relations between Washington and Moscow are considered. It is concluded that Rojanski’s foreign policy views are close to the liberal-universalist ideology of the progressive grouping in the Democratic Party.

Leverage

This article studies the connection between U.S. military aid to the Afghan Mujahedeen during the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989) and the rise of Islamist militias in Afghanistan during the 1990s. Funding for the Mujahedeen during the conflict exceeded over $3 billion between the Carter and Reagan presidencies, and these funds were later used by Islamist insurgents during the Afghan civil wars. However, the reasons behind the U.S. support is poorly understood. The article explores U.S. State Department and National Security Council documents to suggest that U.S. aid for the Mujahedeen was primarily given to repair US-Pakistani relations and humiliate Cold War rivals rather than to support an independent Afghanistan. The article argues that contemporary foreign policy goals incensed the United States to fund the Islamist organizations that would be Al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban.

The National Security Council (Rada Bezpieczeństwa Narodowego) – an advisory organ to the President of Poland?

Poland’s National Security Council (Rada Bezpieczeństwa Narodowego, RBN) is defined in the country’s Constitution as organ doradczy Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w zakresie wewnętrznego i zewnętrznego bezpieczeństwa państwa (officially translating into: “the advisory organ to the President of the Republic regarding internal and external security of the State”). Against that background, this article uses analysis of policy practice as it seeks to explain whether the NSC truly plays that role of advisory organ, or is more in the nature of a coordinating-and-consulting body. To address this research topic, three areas have been identified for broader and deeper consideration, i.e. the means of selecting Council Members, the frequency with which Sittings have been convened, and the subject matter addressed at those Sittings.

Military Disengagement from Politics in Turkey: Lessons for Pakistan

The armed forces had a predominant role in the Turkish polity until 2002. During 1960 and 2002, the military had staged direct coups, i.e. 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997 and maintained an indirect role in internal and external politics through various institutions such as National Security Council (NSC), National Unity Command (NUC), Military courts, Military corporations (OYAK), and Military Pension Fund (MPF). However, the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has replaced the hitherto predominance of the army in Turkish polity. This research paper highlights that AKP has been successful in disengaging the military from politics with mass support, continuous successes in elections, and managing internal and external threats. Further, the manuscript explored the quest of Turkey to become a member of the European Union, great powers support to Tayyab Erdogan on ensuring human rights, and the principle of republicanism have contributed to the AKP project of civilian supremacy over the armed forces.

“If the gas pipeline would be built, we lose”: transcript of Reagan's speech at the US National Security Council Meeting on the Sanctions against Soviet Union

The object of this research is the declassified transcript of the US National Security Council Meeting of July 9, 1981, dedicated to introduction of the economic and political restrictions on building of the Soviet gas main pipeline. The subject of this research is the analysis information-bearing capabilities of the office documentation of the US National Security Council Meetings for conducting the scientific assessment of sanctions policy of the US government against the Soviet Union in the 1980s as part of directives on restricting the access of the Soviet Union to foreign markets. The article examines the published protocol the US National Security Council Meeting and related documents that contain information on creating the regime to impede the construction of the gas main pipeline to Europe. The novelty of lies in the fact that this article is first within the framework of historiographical analysis to study the plans of the US President R. Reagan on interruption of the active efforts of the Soviet Union to supply Western Europe with energy. Publication of the document clearly demonstrates that the ideas of restarting the trade-economic development of the Soviet Union were later implemented in other countries in the XXI century, when the Russian Nord Stream pipeline became one of the crucial vanguards within the system of control of the US national security interests in Europe. Based on the newly introduced documents from the foreign archives of the CIA, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, materials of the US periodical press, and memoirs, the author explores the options prepared by the US agencies aimed at complete shutdown, and restriction of access of the participants of the Soviet-German gas pipeline deal to foreign markets and resources, as well as the response of business community to trade embargo with the USSR.