Friday, October 25, 2013
Executive Summary
The Obama Administration faces myriad challenges in the Middle East. It is wisely searching for new approaches to them because current policies are not working. There is no panacea to these foreign policy challenges, but at least one policy framework can help enable the U.S. to better understand and address them: a deeper Ankara-Washington partnership. As the Middle East’s largest and Europe’s fastest-growing economy and population, Turkey is uniquely situated to play a consequential role in a region critical to U.S. national interests.
By binding Washington and Ankara more closely together in areas where concrete cooperation is possible (and compartmentalizing differences), these two historic allies can bring greater stability to the Middle East. Specifically, Turkey’s burgeoning partnership with neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan– previously thought to be impossible because of Turkey’s troubles with its own Kurdish population – is one of the country’s few continued success stories and a concrete example of where U.S.-Turkey policy cooperation is urgently needed.
This paper maps out a strategy for U.S. policymakers to constructively work with Turkey and align vital national security interests. It articulates a new framework to help the U.S. manage its Turkey and Iraq policies based on the following three pillars: (i) empower Turkey to lead responsibly in its own neighborhood; (ii) support Turkey as a regional broker; and (iii) compartmentalize and prioritize Turkey-Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) relations and thereby empower Turkey to solve its own Kurdish problem.
The United States can begin to stand up these pillars by taking action in several ways.
1. Elevating the Trilateral Turkey-Iraq-U.S. Mechanism and adding a KRG-Turkey-U.S. sub-dialogue would demonstrate to Ankara and Baghdad America’s commitment to finding inclusive solutions to regional challenges that affect all three countries.
2. The U.S. must clearly articulate our policy towards Ankara-Erbil and how it fits into a broader vision for the U.S.-Turkish partnership in a way that is consistent with standing U.S. policy towards Iraq.
3. The U.S. should encourage greater American private sector investment in the KRG. Economic growth in the KRG benefits Ankara, Erbil, and Baghdad, and creates improves the opportunities for robust trilateral relations in the future.
4. The U.S. should leverage foreign assistance to empower the KRG and appropriate Kurdish institutions. Investments in education, rule of law reform, and sustainable development in the Kurdish regions would have powerful multiplier effects that would benefit all of Iraq, but are too often avoided for fear of antagonizing the central government in Baghdad.
Source: http://cnponline.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/42525#!