On the list of the remarkable array of foreign policy challenges President Obama will soon face, managing U.S.-Turkish relations rarely appears. The reason is clear: Turkey poses no security threat to the United States compared to the situations in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Russia in and around the Caucasus. Turkey is not a key player like the European Union, Japan and China in dealing with the international financial debacle. It is not an energy exporter like Saudi Arabia. It does not harbor terrorists who want to strike the United States, and it is not a proliferation risk like Pakistan and North Korea. In short, Turkey doesn’t make headlines in the New York Times or on CNN.

Yet trouble in every single one of these geographical and functional areas, and others besides, affects Turkish interests and engages Turkish influence. Turkey thus remains of great strategic importance to the United States. Indeed, its role is indispensable to the success of U.S. policy on several key fronts. At the same time, however, traditionally good working relations between the United States and Turkey have experienced significant difficulties.