A Study on the Sustainability of the EU-Turkey Deal

Abstract

This thesis investigates the sustainability of the EU-Turkey Deal in the context of bilateralism. Based on previous research of Oye, Axelrod, and Keohane (1985) on successful bilateral cooperation, three different factors that help to explain durable cooperation are selected in a context of game theory and expectations are drawn accordingly. They are then applied to the case of the EU-Turkey Deal to establish an understanding of its sustainability. After a discussion on the expectations of the Deals sustainability in relation to the concepts of issue-linkage, domestic politics, and compatibility of games, argument on the shadow of the future is developed.