Turkey : facing a new millennium : coping with intertwined conflicts /

Nachmani (Bar Ilan Univ., Israel) introduces the complexities of Turkey's domestic politics and their reflections on its foreign policy after the end of the Cold War. His analysis does not elaborate on why but offers a very rich account of how Turkey is positioned in the middle of a set of conflicts from ethnic religious to territorial and regional ones. Given his in-depth description of the massive transformation of Turkey's policy-making process, his conclusion is somewhat deterministic. Nachmani asserts that how the European Union reacts to Turkey's recent reforms will determine the future of its democracy: "If positive, Turkish society will become more pluralistic, open and liberal minded; if negative, radicalism, introversion, religionism, and excessive nationalism will rule the day in Turkey." Even though it lacks an explicit theoretical framework, Nachmani's careful analysis of a wide range of issues from the Kurdish question to the Turkish-Israeli rapprochement makes it an important contribution to a better understanding of Turkey's precarious position in world politics and the fragile political balances in the Middle East and Central Asia. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. General readers and upper-division undergraduates and above. S. Tepe University of Illinois at Chicago