Arms at the frontier: What Turkey's Africa engagement reveals about its defence-industrial model

Nebahat Tanrıverdi Yaşar and Barış Alp Özden

No 37/2026, SWP Comments from Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), German Institute for International and Security Affairs

Abstract: Turkey's defence engagement in Africa is often read through the lens of geopolitics, drone use, and conflict dynamics. Yet the deeper story is industrial and strategic. Africa remains central to Turkey's defence-export strategy because it helps resolve structural pressures within Turkey's defence-industrial ecosystem by sustaining production, easing competitive pressures, and creating external demand for an increasingly export-dependent industry. As Turkish and European companies become more closely connected, these dynamics will increasingly matter for Germany and the European Union (EU) both within Europe's defence-industrial landscape and in third markets beyond its direct reach.

Keywords: geopolitics; Turkey; Africa; defence-export strategy; European Union; defence-industry; Turkish Armed Forces; Turkey's Africa Engagement; supply chains; export governance; dependency; technology; Germany; defence-industrial relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-ara
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:swpcom:344115

DOI: 10.18449/2026C37

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