Although Turkey and Hungary are both members of the Euro-Atlantic alliance, their relations with the West have at times taken a turbulent turn under the AKP and FIDESZ governments, respectively. The tensions that emerged in Turkey after 2002 and in Hungary from 2010 onwards unfolded in different political contexts, yet they raise a common question: what lies behind these two distinct cases? Drawing on the multilayered perspective of Neoclassical Realism, this book examines the foreign policy choices of Turkey and Hungary and explores the dynamics shaping their relations with NATO. By bringing together domestic politics, leadership styles, geopolitical positioning, and historical memory, it offers a comparative account of the forces behind the two countries' increasingly contested relations with the West. Through this analysis, the book seeks to shed light on how domestic and international factors interact in shaping foreign policy, and why states within the same alliance may nevertheless pursue increasingly divergent paths.