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Man vs. the System: Turkish Foreign Policy After the Arab Uprisings

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Book cover Fear and Uncertainty in Europe

Part of the book series: Global Issues ((GLOISS))

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the much-debated Turkish foreign policy preferences towards the Middle East during the Arab uprisings through a neoclassical realist framework. Turkey is a middle power in the international system and in order to grasp Turkey’s decision makers’ policy toward the region, it is important to comprehend human factors (perceptions, analysis, heuristics, analogies, cultural references) and variables of domestic politics (public opinion, electoral processes, border cities, Turkey’s own ethno-religious structure). If we only examine systemic factors, it is impossible to explain tensions derived from asymmetries between roles and motivations of a state prescribed by its leaders and its actual abilities. In this context, explanations regarding domestic politics and character of leadership become important. Examining how decision makers reach specific decisions through interpreting structural pressures and Turkey’s desire to “shape” the region with its own cognitive perspectives as well as how they synthesize this with the necessities of the domestic political cycles will provide an insight to understand decisions that seem unintelligible at first glance.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For neoclassical realism as an approach rather than a theory, see Donnelly in this volume.

  2. 2.

    We use Holsti’s (1970) descriptions for foreign policy roles such as “balancer” and “global and regional collaborator” unless otherwise stated. “Balancer” for example refers to states that aim to maintain regional or global balance of power. “Global and regional collaborator” refers to “far-reaching commitments to cooperative efforts with other states to build wider communities, or to cross-cutting subsystems…” (Holsti 1970: 266).

  3. 3.

    In general, “bridge” role refers to “acting as a ‘translator’ or conveyor of messages and information between peoples of different culture” (Holsti 1970: 267). For Turkey as a bridge between different civilizations and faiths see Yanik (2009).

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Acknowledgements

This research was made possible by a TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey ) grant (Number 112K169).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

    Özgür Özdamar

  2. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Balkan Devlen

Authors
  1. Özgür Özdamar
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  2. Balkan Devlen
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Correspondence to Özgür Özdamar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Roberto Belloni

  2. Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Vincent Della Sala

  3. Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Paul Viotti

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Özdamar, Ö., Devlen, B. (2019). Man vs. the System: Turkish Foreign Policy After the Arab Uprisings. In: Belloni, R., Della Sala, V., Viotti, P. (eds) Fear and Uncertainty in Europe . Global Issues. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91965-2_9

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