Analytical Eclecticism in an Analysis of Turkey's Regional Foreign Policy

Abstract

Historically, Turkish foreign policy (TFP) has hardly been unpredictable; hence, the field of study has always been somewhat classical, rigid and orthodox. After the end of the Cold War, a changed international system has allowed Turkey to slowly change its foreign policy (FP), but it is not until the early 2000s that an underlying change in Turkish society, identity and politics had the opportunity of giving a new momentum to TFP transformation. In the last decade the Turkish political system has seen a major reorganisation, and one of the many consequences in such change, perhaps the most apparent transformation to the external observer, has been a shift in Ankara's otherwise restrained and status quo oriented FP. On the one hand, these changes found unprepared observers, who often enough gave wrong interpretations of the events unfolding under their watch. On the other hand, said changes have sparked a renewed interest in TFP, and new alternative approaches in TFP analysis (TFPA) have proliferated. With this thesis I aim at providing a more comprehensive account of Turkish regional foreign policy vis-a-vis the Arab uprisings. I will do so by providing explanations on different levels of analysis; this will also demonstrate that different methodologies need not necessarily wield different results. I will...

Historically, Turkish foreign policy (TFP) has hardly been unpredictable; hence, the field of study has always been somewhat classical, rigid and orthodox. After the end of the Cold War, a changed international system has allowed Turkey to slowly change its foreign policy (FP), but it is not until the early 2000s that an underlying change in Turkish society, identity and politics had the opportunity of giving a new momentum to TFP transformation. In the last decade the Turkish political system has seen a major reorganisation, and one of the many consequences in such change, perhaps the most apparent transformation to the external observer, has been a shift in Ankara's otherwise restrained and status quo oriented FP. On the one hand, these changes found unprepared observers, who often enough gave wrong interpretations of the events unfolding under their watch. On the other hand, said changes have sparked a renewed interest in TFP, and new alternative approaches in TFP analysis (TFPA) have proliferated. With this thesis I aim at providing a more comprehensive account of Turkish regional foreign policy vis-a-vis the Arab uprisings. I will do so by providing explanations on different levels of analysis; this will also demonstrate that different methodologies need not necessarily wield different results. I will...