Turkey's Erdogan Stockholm syndrome pleases Putin, threatens NATO

Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey is now the primary obstacle to Sweden joining NATO.

Dr. Mark T. Esper was the 27th secretary of Defense and 23rd secretary of the Army, and author of the NYT bestselling memoir "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs Of A Secretary Of Defense During Extraordinary Times." 

On the international stage, Erdogan has played various roles, usually taking on issues and pursuing strategies that promote his profile abroad and his political support back home. During my time at the Pentagon, I sometimes felt he was a bigger challenge to NATO than Vladimir Putin. This is not easy to say. After all, Turkey is one of the oldest, more capable, and strategic members of the alliance since joining in 1952. Yet just a few years ago, Erdogan kept Washington busy with one issue after another: from threatening our fellow ally Greece and aggressively challenging French warships in the Mediterranean, to blocking the approval of NATO war plans in Brussels and buying advanced air defense systems – designed to defeat U.S. aircraft -- from Moscow, just to name a few.

Fast forward a few years, and the friction has only grown as the stakes have increased. Ankara is now the primary obstacle to Sweden joining NATO, and is doing so amid the most destructive conflict in Europe since WWII. It’s a patently political move that surely pleases Moscow.