Analysis · NATO and TurkeyThe West’s Eastern OutpostTopic
Security
Security policy, counter-terrorism, intelligence and defence in Europe and Turkey, from the individual’s sense of security to the strategies of states.
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Analysis · NATO and TurkeyThe West’s Eastern Outpost
Analysis · NATO and TurkeyAn Alliance Without an Enemy
Analysis · NATO and TurkeyWar Impossible, Peace UnattainableSeries in this field
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15 parts
Ukraine War 2022
8 parts
Cross-Border Operations in Syria
11 parts
Current Affairs Q&A
6 parts
New Technologies in Counter-Terrorism
6 parts
Turkey–Syria Criminal Links
5 parts
A Brief Summary of a Troubled Period
5 parts
The Anatomy of Terrorism
9 parts
Afghanistan and Afghan Migration 2021
Latest articles
The Framework Law (2): Will It Contribute to Social Peace?
Silencing the guns matters, but lasting peace requires independent verification, victims’ rights and democratisation. Examples from Sierra Leone to Colombia and from Northern Ireland to Chechnya show who pays the price when these safeguards are missing.
A Spy Story: The Founding of NATO
A physicist who carried the secrets of the atomic bomb to Moscow, promises made at Yalta and a city fed from the air for months. Within four years, yesterday’s allies split into two camps and NATO was born.
The Framework Law (1): Deferral for the Armed, Punishment for the Unarmed Opposition
The Framework Law adopted in August 2026 grants conditional impunity to members of an armed organisation but opens no similar path for opponents who have never used violence. For the author, the problem is that the law applies differently depending on who you are.
They Won, Everyone Lost
In modern wars even the stronger side cannot win a decisive victory. The US and Israeli war against Iran has also stalled in a state of neither war nor peace without reaching its goals; every side will declare itself the winner, and the peoples will be the losers.
From Aleppo to Deir ez-Zor: Is the SDF’s Fragile Order with the Tribes Collapsing?
From the outside the SDF may look like a homogeneous structure, but it is a fragile coalition resting on Arab tribes. At a time when US support is weakening and power has changed hands in Damascus, this alliance is unravelling.
The ISIS Clash in Yalova: Silent Cells, Invisible Triggers and Grey Areas
The clash with an ISIS cell in Yalova shook the perception that “the organisation is no longer effective”. Having lost territory, ISIS is in a phase of “strategic patience” with silent, localised cells; the real question is when, and to whose benefit, these cells are set in motion.
A Personal Analysis of Abdullah Öcalan’s Political Transformation
Fatih Altaylı’s 1997 interview with Öcalan was published 28 years later. The leader who said “I will not touch Turkey’s borders” turned, on İmralı, into a theorist of stateless democracy: contradiction or strategic evolution?
Spies Without an Accent: The Secret-Service Price of Mizrahi Identity
The Ashkenazi cadre of the newly founded Israel was a stranger to the Arab world. Mizrahi Jews who spoke Arabic as their mother tongue became intelligence’s most valuable resource, but at the price of having their identity instrumentalised.
From Istanbul to the Top of German Intelligence
Istanbul-born Sinan Selen has become the first person with a migrant background to head Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the BfV. The appointment drew different reactions in Germany, in Europe, in Turkey and in the diaspora.
The Vicious Circle of Terrorism
Children who lose their families in the middle of war and cross borders barefoot may, if no one takes care of them, become the young people most easily recruited by tomorrow’s radical organisations. How can the vicious circle of terrorism be broken?
A Small but Influential People: The Druze
Druzism is a belief system, but with their strong identity the Druze are perceived almost as a separate people. With influence far beyond their numbers in Lebanon, Syria and Israel, this community holds a critical position in Syria’s new balances.
The SDF’s Means and Capabilities in a Possible Operation against Rojava
What happens if the US withdraws from Syria? The article assesses the SDF’s manpower, weapons capacity and ability to resist a possible Turkish operation in a scenario where US protection is lifted.
