Introduction: the Turkish puzzle -- Modernisation as a theoretical concept -- Reform and decline: modernisation in the Ottoman Empire -- National resurrection: the early Turkish Republic -- Western integration: the multi-party period -- Kemalism challenged: Susurluk, political Islam and Kurdish nationalism -- Encircled by enemies? Turkey's foreign policy and its Middle Eastern neighbours -- The uneasy alignment: Turkey and Israel -- The revival of Pan-Turkism: Turkish policies in Central Asian and the Transcaucasus -- Conclusions: the impasse of Kemalist modernisation