President Obama, in an interview in January 2012, named Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan among the five world leaders with whom he enjoys the most trusted and effective relations on the global scene. But close observers of US foreign policy may have noticed a growing gap between the intensity of high-level consultations between American and Turkish policymakers on issues from Iran and Syria to Afghanistan, and the Arab uprisings and lagging perceptions of Turkey on the Hill and beyond.
A new report by a task force convened by the Council on Foreign Relations aims to correct that, arguing it’s time for an upgrade of US-Turkish relations, one that recognizes Turkey’s growing importance on the world scene.
