While accession talks between Turkey and the EU are underway, the debate over Turkey's European prospects is heating up and a variety of perspectives, positions, opinions and arguments are put forward. Turkey and the European Union makes a scholarly contribution to the debate over Turkey's quest for EU membership and participation in the European future of Turkey's Western orientation and the EU's deepening and widening. The twelve chapters cover topics in history, politics, economy, society and culture. The central question addressed is whether the Christian and Islamic worlds can accommodate each other and how the internal socio-political dynamics and external orientations of Turkey can be compatible with the logic and dynamics of European integration. The regional context of Middle Eastern politics and the evolving transatlantic relations in a changing world of rising tensions between the West and Islam are also addressed.