TEPAV and CSIS cooperate for contributing to the improvement of Turkish-American relations. Within this perspective, both think-tanks are working on parallel reports that were discussed during the meeting held in Ankara on January 14, 2009.

As a representative of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), CSIS Vice Chairman and International Security Program Director Stephan J. Flanagan, CSIS Russia and Eurasia Project Director Andrew Kuchins, CSIS Turkey Project Director Bülent Alırıza and CSIS International Security Program Expert Samuel Brannen attended the meeting held at TEPAV.

The purpose of this meeting was to ensure mutual exchange of information with respect to the reports on Turkish - American relations being produced by the two think-tanks on a parallel track. While the CSIS report addresses the bilateral relations under a foreign policy-based approach, TEPAV report focuses on the economic aspects of the bilateral relations. Both think-tanks highlight the importance of establishing a conceptual framework in improving the bilateral relations and make recommendations on how to establish this framework. Two notable think-tanks from Turkey and the U.S. are for the first time working in coordination to provide guidance for their respective policy-makers.

The TEPAV report is being produced by a committee composed of economics and international relations experts. . The committee working on the CSIS report includes Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, who used to serve as the former United States National Security Advisors.

TEPAV report touches on the benefits of structuring the Turkish - American relations with a further emphasis on joint private sector development projects in Turkey's neighboring region. The report touches upon the economic, social and political transformation that Turkey is going through especially after 1980s. The report expresses that Turkey can contribute to the development of the private sector and the economic integration of the neighboring countries going through a similar transformation via sharing the gains made and lessons learned during her own transformation. The report underlines that Turkey is a key country located at the intersection of many countries and thematic areas covered within the priority list of the United States such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Caucasians and security of energy routes, prevention of weapons of mass destruction, prevention of radicalism etc. The report, therefore, maintains that the agenda of Turkey and the U.S. intersects and complements one another. The report also highlights the importance of the establishment of an effectively-operating coordination mechanism between the two countries. It underlines the fact that the operation of such a mechanism depends on whether the new U.S. administration adopts a more multilateral and gradualist foreign policy. Final section of the report enumerates the instruments to be employed by an effective foreign policy in harmony with an economic perspective. Within this perspective, the report comments on the importance of making the United Nations Security Council temporary membership, that Turkey acquired recently, and the G-20 membership operational.

The reports are estimated to be completed and conveyed to policy-makers as of February 2009.