Nuclear Latency: The Turkish Case

Abstract

Turkey’s interest in nuclear technology has increased over the years. The aim of this article is to summarize, synthetize, update, and contextualize Turkey’s nonproliferation policies and link it to the broader discussion on nuclear latency. The article first attempts to show the shortcomings of several latency arguments by overviewing the factors that affect Turkey’s latency status. The main finding of the article is that Turkey’s latency in terms of technology will increase, yet that increase cannot be predicted as potent enough to result in latency potential in terms of a nuclear weapons program in the shortand medium-term without a serious change in international and domestic politics.