Much has been written about recent Russian foreign policy – toward the U.S., toward the EU, toward the “Near Abroad.” But much less is available about Russian policy toward and with the countries of the Middle East, including Turkey. Muhammet Koçak has made a superb and comprehensive contribution to that limited literature with his new study. He details how relations between Turkey and Russia gradually evolved and generally improved appreciably over the period 2001-2022, beginning with trade, but expanding to political and security support, such as that to President Assad of Syria against his domestic opponents. A major strength of the analysis is Koçak’s noting events that shaped Important shifts in relations between the two countries in the first two decades of the century -- the U.S. invasion of Iraq, then the civil war in Syria, and finally the failed coup in Turkey itself. Central, as well, is the extensive treatment of the growing importance of the two states in regional and even global politics.

Roger E. Kanet, University of Miami

Muhammet Koçak provides a comprehensive empirical overview of Turkish-Russian relations in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, coupled with a novel periodization of bilateral relations into three different intervals punctuated by the United States invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring, and the failed coup attempt in Turkey. This book is impressive and commendable in its empirical scope and refreshing in its balanced and objective treatment of a critical bilateral relationship of the world order in the twenty-first century.

Sener Aktürk, Koç University