Mufti argues that Turkey's security policy is dominated by an insular and risk-averse 'Republican' strategic culture paradigm, that this paradigm has fallen into crisis, bringing some of its core elements in conflict with others, and that this crisis has permitted the reassertion of a more cosmopolitan and risk-taking 'Imperial' counter-paradigm.

Mufti argues that Turkey's security policy is dominated by an insular and risk-averse 'Republican' strategic culture paradigm, that this paradigm has fallen into crisis, bringing some of its core elements in conflict with others, and that this crisis has permitted the reassertion of a more cosmopolitan and risk-taking 'Imperial' counter-paradigm.