TURKEY AS BRIDGEHEAD AND SPEARHEAD: INTEGRATING EU AND TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY.

The paper takes as an assumption that the EU will decide to open accession negotiations with Turkey at the end of 2004, and explores in this context the potential for integration of EU and Turkish foreign, security and defense policies already in the pre-accession period. The evolving nature of both the EU itself and Turkey as foreign policy actors is considered, with attention drawn to the effective graduations in the nature of the EU's external borders as it extends its membership and association arrangements deeper into the south-eastern periphery. Turkish capabilities are reviewed, ranging from the subjective arguments about its experience as a democratizing, secular state of largely Muslim culture, through to objective assets such as military capabilities and cultural affinities with various neighboring peoples. With the Turkish neighborhood thus becoming the EU's wider neighborhood, the paper reviews how far the EU and Turkey might be convergent in their interests and complementary in their capabilities in such regions as the Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, and Central Asia. The paper concludes with the assessment that Turkey stands to be unambiguously an asset for the EU's external policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]