Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD) and the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), in cooperation with  European partners, will organize a multi-year program of meetings focused on specific questions affecting Turkey, the United States, and Europe called the Trilateral Strategy Group (TSG). The Project will be carried out between 2009 and 2011.

The purpose of the Trilateral Strategy Group will be to address policy issues while taking into account the following three significant considerations.  First, Turkey’s ongoing EU candidacy and frictions in U.S.-Turkish relations have a critical backdrop in the form of unresolved questions about the future of transatlantic strategy.  Continued instability in Iraq, and policy differences over Iran and other questions, point to the risk of further turmoil in the next few years.  Most of the key policy dilemmas facing the U.S., Turkey, and Europe are shared, but new approaches are often developed and implemented in isolation – with limited success.  From the future of Iraq to counter-terrorism, from energy security to trade and investment, there will be few if any bilateral solutions.  Yet, current debates and dialogues involving Turkey are structured almost exclusively along bilateral lines: Turkey-U.S. or Turkey-EU.  On wider questions of transatlantic cooperation, the Turkish dimension is often marginalized or lost.

Second, policy debates about Turkey’s role and orientation continue to focus heavily on vague geopolitical and “civilizational” questions rather than concrete issues. To be sure, geography and culture matter.  But the future of relations between Turkey and the West is more likely to be defined by the quality of cooperation on shared policy challenges, including, but also looking beyond, the most immediate and neuralgic problems.  The rise of nationalism and the risk of a wider re-nationalization of strategies in Turkey, Europe, and across the Atlantic could well exacerbate already strained relations between Ankara and its Western partners.  There is a pressing need for a fresh, triangular approach to understand and address key issues, and to spur more imaginative thinking about the overall Turkish-U.S.-European relationship.

Third, the impressive expertise and influential networks – new and old – on all sides need a better forum for cooperative analysis and dialogue.  Increasingly, public opinion counts on all sides and on virtually all of the critical issues affecting triangular relations.  The Trilateral Strategy Group’s activity will not duplicate existing bilateral forums, but would augment these efforts and offer something structurally new, policy-oriented, and effective.

Meetings will bring together a core group of roughly 15-20 people – officials, experts, and opinion shapers – for focused discussion of specific issues and “triangular” strategies.  Debate will be informed by expert briefings and papers commissioned from the best available analysts.  The activity will place front and center the overall longer-term challenge of re-conceptualizing and reshaping Turkish-Western relations, but will generally be designed around a selected theme, and the issue agenda will be designed collaboratively and will span foreign and security policy questions, as well as pressing domestic challenges. 

June 4-6, 2009: Istanbul

The first meeting of the Project was held on June 4-6, 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey. The meeting brought together public and private sector leaders and opinion shapers to discuss policy challenges affecting the United States, Turkey, and Europe.  In Istanbul, participants addressed "The Global Economic Crisis: Strategic Implications for Turkey, Europe, and the United States." 

Click here to access the summary and reflections note on the debate.

January 28-30, 2010: Stockholm 

The second meeting of the Trilateral Strategy Group was held in Stockholm, Sweden on January 28-30, 2010.  It brought together policymakers, experts, and opinion shapers from the United States, Turkey, and the European Union to discuss "Turkey, Europe, and the United States in a Multipolar World." The group explored the idea of a common and unified “Western” orientation on foreign policy issues and the limitations associated with this viewpoint, particularly in regards to Turkey, its foreign policy, and its convergence with the West.

Click here to access a policy brief reflecting on the meeting from a US perspective.

Click here to access a policy brief reflecting on the meeting from a European perspective. 

In addition, the Trilateral Strategy Group has published a series of policy papers on United States, Turkish, and European Union relations with Russia:

For the Turkish perspective, please click here.

For the European perspective, please click here.

For the American perspective, please click here.