Middle Powers' Security Strategies and Their Responses to Great Powers: The Cases of Poland and Turkey

This study explores the security strategies of middle powers and aims at their responses to external environments. This paper argues that: (a) Unlike small powers in international politics, middle powers have more comprehensive national strengths and a more autonomous status. Autonomy for states is a major reason related to middle powers' strategies. (b) Geopolitical proximity and sense of threat will co-define middle powers' security strategies: the closer to the center of threat, the stronger of the sense of threat. (c) Global powers will act to help middle powers' foreign policy in return if middle powers do something to help global powers. One good turn deserves another reflecting this virtuous circle, in some cases. By contrast, a sense of high tolerance of global power for middle powers turnabout were the cases in other regions. We take Poland and Turkey as two examples of middle powers and try to explain their security strategies in accordance with geopolitics.