Turkey’s Drones Diplomacy. Between coercion and influence

The spread of armed drones and the possession of UAVs from powerful states to non-states actors has been a source of concern and has ignited a heated debate on the consequences of drone proliferation for international and regional security. This paper examines the underexplored issue of Turkey’s drones diplomacy and the instrumentalization of drones in foreign policy. Thus, it contributes to the literature of Turkish foreign policy as well as to the literature on drones warfare by putting in the spotlight the case of Turkey. Turkish Foreign Policy has undergone structural changes especially when Recep Tayyip Erdogan undertook the Presidency and adopted a more assertive foreign policy. In that frame, this paper contends that Turkey uses its robust domestic arms industry twofold: to coerce and to influence. Turkish military bases from Caucasus and Eastern Mediterranean to the Horn of Africa, along with its military operations in Iraq, Syria and Libya illustrate the use of drones for coercive purposes in order to pursue its revisionist agenda especially in the Eastern Mediterranean. Furthermore, it shows how a state can enhance its power by using arms sales to influence its external environment, as it happens under the Presidency of Erdogan. Finally, this paper challenges literature that degrades the consequences of drone proliferation for regional security. The example of Turkey that has emerged as an upcoming drone power but simultaneously does not hesitate to use them in different conflicts raises concerns both on regional security and civilian casualties resulted by the not so ‘precision strikes’ as well as by failed surveillance of migration flows that has an immense cost on human lives.