The Nexus between intelligence and foreign policy in the Turkish context: strategic implications of the MIT’s transformation
Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 2025 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Publication Type: Article / Article
- Publication Date: 2025
- Doi Number: 10.1080/14683857.2025.2469380
- Journal Name: Southeast European and Black Sea Studies
- Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Historical Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, Index Islamicus, Political Science Complete, Public Affairs Index, Sociological abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
- Keywords: Intelligence reform, MIT, strategic autonomy, Turkish foreign policy
- Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
This article depicts MIT’s transformation as an instance of Turkey’s quest for strategic autonomy in international affairs. Strategic autonomy represents the top segment of the pyramid, following technological, operational, and political autonomy, while the fusion of intelligence and foreign policy stands as the most powerful and functional apparatus of strategic autonomy. This article makes two arguments. First, the logic of the intelligence reform has been necessitated with regard to internal and external factors as a consequence of domestic changes since 2002. Second, the transformation of the institutional and operational cultures of Turkish intelligence has created a new strategic culture that led to the emergence of technologization, operationalization, and diplomatization patterns. These patterns not only revealed the significance of intelligence operations as an extension of foreign policy objectives but also emphasized the role of intelligence-driven diplomacy in the foreign policy decision-making process. By unpacking the constitutive relationship between intelligence and foreign policy, this article aims to trace how the MIT has been institutionalized and instrumentalized both as a strategic enabler of foreign policy and a tool for strategic autonomy.