Defense industry as an instrument in national security and foreign policy: The case of Turkey

States have to rely on their own capacities to protect and maintain their existence in the international system where there is no higher authority. The most important instrument of the capacity, which includes many elements such as population, natural resources, and physical infrastructure, is military power in the face of security problems. In the historical process, the military power, which is formed by elements such as human muscle power and animal power used by humans, has undergone a transformation process in which quality replaces quantity with each passing day by putting technology at the center with the twentieth century. This transformation, in which technology is against the human, reached its peak symbolically with the atomic bombs used in 1945. After this stage, while human muscle power lost its importance day by day in military power, human brain power continued to gain importance as an element that could produce and use technology. In this period of the transformation of military power, there has been a distinction between defensive and offensive realism among the neorealist theorists working on how states will ensure their security. At the center of this distinction are the answers to the question of how much power is enough. The question of how much armament is sufficient is of great importance when evaluated in the context of the security dilemma. In the 1970s, when the current debate began, the fact that the number of states with weapons industry was low in the world, and that it was not as easy to produce and access technology as it is today, makes it easier to ignore the source of the weapon at the point of how much the states should arm themselves. However, despite the fact that technology has become easier to access and use after the Cold War, this discussion among neorealist theorists is handled around the right question, but it remains incomplete because it ignores the source of armament and can lead to wrong conclusions only if the discussion is made on the basis of the available military power. The impact of the developing defense industry on security and foreign policy occurs in different layers and in many ways. The first benefit that the defense industry provides to a state is that it forms the basis for decision makers to take decisions appropriate to the capacity of the state, leaving the illusion of security, since it shows its real military capacity. In the event of a war, if the military systems imported from abroad are damaged, it is very difficult to supply new ones or to maintain the existing systems. For this reason, the defense industry clearly shows a state which capacity is sustainable or not in the combat environment. The reflection of this situation on foreign policy is two-dimensional. First of all, the correct perception of the capacity will also bring the correct calculation of the risks taken in foreign policy. On the other hand, the fact that the military capacity of the state is based on its own defense industry, when combined with the right policies, will increase deterrence as an input that is difficult to calculate for the enemy state compared to foreign procurement.