Why the U.S. Should Try to Salvage Its Alliance with Turkey, and How It Could

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s dictatorial tendencies, his support for Hamas, his passive aid to Islamic State, and his flirtations with Moscow and Tehran have led many in the U.S. to despair of Turkey’s future as an ally. Two weeks ago, the last straw seemed to come when, despite repeated warnings from Washington, Turkey began receiving Russia’s S-400 missile-defense system, designed specifically to shoot down American-made F-35s. To Michael Doran and Peter Rough, however, there are some legitimate grievances behind Ankara’s bad behavior, and moreover the alliance, which dates back to the beginning of the cold war, is too important to sacrifice: