Strategy and security: Transformation of the defense industry in Turkey

All states' primary obligations are to ensure security, national integrity, and homeland security. Today, countries develop their defense industries and strategies, taking into account their strategic positions, against all threats that may arise from both inside and outside to disrupt national security and integrity. In this context, the defense industry, which should be continuous, is a collection of organizations and businesses that design all the defense tools needed for the protection of a nation's sovereignty, renew it to keep up with the changing age, develop itself, and produce all kinds of equipment. Due to its geographical structure and geopolitical position in the globalizing world, the Republic of Turkey must have strong and advanced defense weapons and national power elements to be a dissuasive force against external threats and to stabilize them. And also shouldn't harm the economic welfare of the country while doing so. The subject of the study is the transformation of strategy, security and defense industry. A qualitative research method was used in the study. The aim of the study is to examine the contribution of security problems arising from both inside and outside of the country to the development of the Turkish defense industry after 2000. In the first part of the study, the Introduction and the Conceptual Framework are included in the second part. Strategy, security, and defense industry are explained in detail in this section. In the third part, the establishment, development process, and important milestones of the Turkish defense industry from the historical process to the present are discussed and its effects on the defense industry policies today are analyzed. The security problems that our country is exposed to due to its geography and strategic location, constituted the fourth part of the study and examined in detail. In the last part, the developments in the defense industry after 2000 were examined and it was concluded that the security problems that Turkey was exposed to were the most important factor determining the direction of our country's investments and activities in the field of defense and reaching its current position.