July 15, 2016

Straddling East and West, Turkey is a critical U.S. ally in fight against Islamic State

Featuring: Nicholas Heras

Source: Los Angeles Times

Journalists: Tracy Wilkinson, W.J. Hennigan

The sprawling nation of Turkey is one of the United States’ most important and critically strategic allies, straddling the divide between the Middle East and the West.

As the only majority-Muslim member of NATO, Turkey has lent its soil to U.S. air bases, supported American military operations in key conflicts — such as Syria today and the Balkans in the 1990s — and served, until recent years, as a rare friendly interlocutor between Muslim nations and Israel.

 

To read the full article, visit the Los Angeles Times website.

Author

  • Nicholas Heras

    Former Fellow, Middle East Security Program

    Nicholas A. Heras is a former Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), working in the Middle East Security Program. His work focused on the analysis of complex...