bilig National Security Culture in Turkey: A Qualitative Study on Think Tanks

This article examines the role that think tanks have played in the formulation of national security and a culture of security through field research conducted on fourteen think tanks located in Istan-bul and Ankara. In addition to participant observation at the think tanks, twenty-five in-depth interviews were conducted with administrators and specialists. The findings revealed that, in terms of their strategic attitudes about national security in Tur-key, there are three groups of think tanks: critical think tanks; b) middle-position think tanks; and c) congruent think tanks. Based on the results of the data collected, we argue that the culture of national security in Turkey has begun to be impacted by a plural-ity of actors, both civilian and official, and that there is an emerg-ing competition for influence over the definitions and conceptu-alizations of security as well as the identification of security issues within a securitization process which has led to their securitiza-tion. Although the think-tank sector in Turkey is still in its form-ative years, its roles and influence in the debates on national secu-rity have been on the rise