Constructing Cooperation : Alliance Discourse in NATO and Türkiye Relations, 2010-2023

This thesis examines how NATO and Türkiye construct the meaning of their alliance through official discourse between 2010 and 2023. Rather than treating cooperation or tension as fixed outcomes, it analyzes how key alliance concepts: including alliance, threats, shared values, burden-sharing, and regional security, are articulated and adapted across shifting geopolitical contexts. Using Comparative Discourse Analysis, supported by Constructivism for descriptive mapping and Regional Security Complex Theory for explanation, the study identifies patterned fluctuation rather than linear change. The findings show that global systemic shocks generate discursive convergence, proximate regional crises produce divergence, and interregional bargaining results in conditional alignment grounded in different justificatory frames. The analysis further demonstrates that alliance discourse operates not only through emphasis but also through strategic silence. Overall, NATO-Türkiye cooperation emerges as a process of continuous negotiation in which alliance cohesion is sustained through the ongoing reinterpretation of shared priorities.