From a Middle Power to a Technological Actor: Turkey's UAV/UCAV-Based Security Policy in the Balkans
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71350/a5journal.5Abstract
This article examines the strategic transformation shaping Turkey's security policy in the Balkans through the deployment and diffusion of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) and armed uncrewed aerial vehicles (UCAVs). It argues that Turkey's growing influence in the region cannot be understood merely as an expansion of military capabilities. Instead, Turkey's UAV/UCAV capacity represents a multidimensional security strategy that integrates NATO interoperability, deterrence production, defense diplomacy, and narratives of regional stability. Focusing on Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, the study demonstrates how technology-based security instruments enable a middle power to generate disproportionate influence within alliance structures and fragile regional security environments. The article adopts a neoclassical realist framework to explain how domestic defense-industrial capacity interacts with systemic constraints to reshape Turkey's regional security role.
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