Human Security in Turkey: Challenges for the 21st century

This edited volume explores human security challenges in the context of Turkey, a rising power occupying a critical geopolitical position between Europe and the Middle East. With a burgeoning economy and strong vibrant civil society, membership of a wide range of organisations from NATO and the OECD to the Islamic Conference, G20 and candidacy to the EU, Turkey is a pivotal player not only in regional but global affairs. It is an important peace broker in regional conflicts, a leading country for peacekeeping operations and has been a generous donor for disaster response around the world. However, Turkey is also a country trying to merge its Islamic heritage into broader structures and models of western liberal democratic governance. To deal with the legacy of its Ottoman heritage, nation-state building policies of the Republic, and civil-military relationships, Turkey needs to address a number of fundamental socio-cultural and development challenges. Furthermore, Turkey's internal stability is affected by a protracted armed conflict based on Kurdish separatism. In other words, Turkey is at crossroads in its transformation from a state-centred security perspective to human security, which is a people-centred approach to global security which recognises that lasting peace and social justice cannot be achieved unless people are protected from threats to their rights and basic needs. Among the main human security threats are: violence and abuse of human rights; corruption and bad governance; disasters and climate chan≥ and poverty and poor access to basic services. These issues are all examined in this volume, which features contributors from a number of different countries as well as from Turkish scholars. This book will be of much interest to students of human security, Turkish politics, conflict management, peace stuides and IR in general.