Another factor that has proved to be effective in shaping Turkey’s attitude towards NATO in the post-Cold War era is that the quality of Turkey’s relations with European allies have begun to be much more dependent on the pace of Turkey’s accession process with the European Union. As Turkey’s contribution to Europe’s security within NATO has gradually become less-emphasized, absent the common Soviet threat, the quality of Turkey’s relations with European states has become very much a function of Turkey’s EU membership process. In an environment in which the number of people who argued that NATO would remain either ‘out of area’ or ‘out of business’ increased and Turkey’s security began to be increasingly affected by the developments taking place in non-European geographies, it has become more difficult to build Turkey’s foreign and security policies primarily on the Western axis, of which NATO has been the most important component.