Comments on 'Defense Planning in Turkey,' By Michael Moodie,
Abstract
Mr Moodie's paper on defense planning in Turkey impresses me as a thorough and competent job. I want to focus my comments on a few additional points. One of the things I miss in Mr. Moodie's good paper is a sufficient sense of the special strategic and geopolitical importance of Turkey in the world scene. The next general point I want to make concerns the relationship between defense planning and military efforts in Turkey on the one hand, and TurKey's economic development, on the other. Mr. Moodie's refers to the potential need and use of theatre nuclear forces as alternative to conventional reinforcement from NATO. I disagree with this formulation. There are numerous opportunities for enhancing Turkish conventional capabilities through advanced technology systems that are also manpower-intensive, e.g., small and light, individually operated anti-tank weapons; surface-to-air missile systems with similar light and individually operated characteristics. Finally, I want to raise what I think is a central problem, as well as an opportunity from the U.S. point of view, to relate the general issue of defense planning in less industrialized states to certain major issues of U.S. defense and foreign policy in the world at large.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1982
- Accession Number
- ADA121225
Entities
People
- Charles Wolf, Jr
Organizations
- RAND Corporation