Turkey and the EU: waning foreign policy alignment in a changing international context

The current relationship between the European Union (EU) and Turkey is dragged outside the standard EU accession framework and is increasingly shaped by Turkey's positions and actions regarding a set of regional and global foreign policy issues. For the EU to carry forward Turkey's long-stalled accession negotiations, Turkey is expected to show progress on multiple fronts, including a satisfactory level of policy alignment with the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). This article provides an in-depth analysis of Turkey's poor alignment with the EU's CFSP positions since 2014. It looks into regional as well as international issues that occupied the agenda of EU foreign policy and explores the utility-based and normative explanations behind Turkey's (dis)engagement in policy cooperation.