National Power of Turkey and Other Powers in the Region

Abstract

This study examines the power of Turkey and other states in the region and provides a comparative assessment of their current national, military and economic power. For Turkey and the other top military powers, future developments in population, economic power, military power and national power were examined. Forecasts of population, economic, military and national power of these top military powers are presented.

Notes

1. For a discussion of issues between Greece and Turkey see H. Sonmez Atesoglu, ‘Turkish National Security Strategy and Military Modernization’, Strategic Review (Winter 2001), pp. 26–32; H. Sonmez Atesoglu, ‘Mediterranean Fault Line—The Future of Greece and Turkey’, in Nursin Atesoglu Guney (ed.), Contentious Issues of Security and the Future of Turkey (Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company 2007), Ch. 10, pp. 151–158.

2. For a discussion of the relevance of military power as an instrument of policy for disputes among various states see Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Understanding International Conflicts, 4th ed. (New York: Longman 2003).

3. Ashley J. Tellis, Measuring National Power in the Post-Industrial Age (Santa Monica, CA: RAND 2001).

4. See Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K2_Black_Panther, accessed 18 November 2008.

5. Hans Kristensen Kristensen, U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Europe (The Nuclear Information Project, A Project with the Federation of American Scientists, 2005), available at http://www.nukestrat.com/pubs/EuroBombs.pdf; Hans Kristensen Kristensen, ‘United States Removes Nuclear Weapons from German Base, Documents Indicate’, Strategic Security Blog, A Project of the Federation of American Scientists, posted on 9 July 2007, available at http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2007/07/united_states_removes_nuclear.php.

6. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Military Expenditure Database, available at http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/mex_database1.html.

7. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), The World Fact Book, available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/.

8. Military and economic power for Cyprus refers only to the Greek-controlled southern part of the island. The population data reported by the CIA Fact Book was adjusted by the author consistent with other information provide in the Fact Book and refers only to the southern Greek part of the island.

9. CIA, World Fact Book.

10. See, for example John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: W.W. Norton 2001).

11. See, for example Military Expenditures and Economic Growth (Santa Monica, CA: RAND 2001).

12. International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Data Base, October 2007, available at http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2007/02/weodata/index.aspx.

13. In projecting the population growth rates for 2011, the growth rate for population was adjusted to account for the fact that the population data for each state was for 2007 rather than 2006.