This book offers a comprehensive account of Turkey's foreign policy narratives in a period of global power shifts. By examining international and national historical processes, the author highlights narrative processes and traditions that describe Turkey and its position in world politics. He also analyzes how global power shifts, such as the rise of China, affect Turkey's increasingly active and confusing foreign policy and the narratives associated with it. The book covers topics such as Kemalist modernization, Islamic conservative views of the New World Order, Turkey's relations with non-Western countries such as Russia and China, and Turkish narratives of the Syrian war and the COVID-19-pandemic. It is intended for scholars of international relations and European and Middle Eastern politics, and appeals to anyone interested in Turkish history and politics.

National and State Identity in Turkey uses the concepts of national and state identity to examine Turkey's domestic and international politics and explain how the country's position in the international system has changed over the last ten years. State identity is understood as the end result of a transformed national identity, linking both domestic and international levels. Toni Alaranta argues that there has been a radical reformulation of Turkey's national identity, interest, and positioning in the world since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. This transformed identity has helped the country renegotiate its status in the world. He first examines the changing nature of Turkey's national identity before looking at the struggle between two extreme positions-secularism and Islamism. He then explains how the "New Turkey" discourse is part of an Islamic-conservative ideology that targets the notion of the "domestic other," or minorities, versus the Turkish-Muslim "self." This discourse is transforming not only the notion of national identity but also Turkey's relations with the rest of the world, and particularly with the European Union.

This book discusses the role of political narratives in shaping perceptions of instability and conceptions of order in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The authors illustrate how, in times of socio-political turmoil and outbursts of discontent such as the Arab Spring, political entrepreneurs explain and justify their political agendas by complementing hard power solutions with attractive ideas and discursive constructions that appeal to domestic constituencies and geopolitical allies. The book is divided into two parts. The first focuses on non-state actors, such as confessional communities and ideological movements, who aim to develop narratives that are convincing to their respective polities. It also studies regional powers that seek to determine their positions in a competitive environment via distinctive narrations of order. In part two, the authors investigate the narratives of global players that aim to explain and justify their role in an evolving international order.

The nature and content of Kemalist ideology in Turkey during the last twenty years is analysed in this book. In order to place the current manifestations of this Turkish official modernising ideology in the two-part context of globalisation and the re-sacralisation of the world, Contemporary Kemalism scrutinises the texts of five prominent Kemalist intellectuals. After defining the unquestioned ideological premises of Kemalism, such as its implied liberal philosophy of history, and its idea about human nature, the book describes Kemalism's vision of the ideal society. Kemalism's close relationship to social democracy and neo-nationalism is then discussed in detail. Also included is an analysis of contemporary Kemalism's relation to earlier Kemalist articulations. The study demonstrates that various previous assumptions, both Western and Turkish, concerning Kemalism's nature and content are too simplistic, and thus unable to account for the endurance of this ideology and its continuing relevancy in present-day Turkey. Inviting the reader to contemplate contemporary Kemalism's ambiguous relationship with the Western world, this book will be of value to scholars and researchers with an interest in Middle Eastern Politics, Modernization Theory and Political Ideology.

This book explains the complex relations and entanglements of Russia and its neighboring countries, an area that changed dramatically after the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War. The chapters discuss how the strategic cultures of different countries display common characteristics rooted in this special geopolitical space that has been subjected to simultaneous changes over a longer time. Shared historical experiences provide a common ground to interpret outside threats. The spatial context is relevant in this volume because the focus is on a geopolitical in-between-ness. The position in between two ideologically, politically or economically divergent entities affects the states' security considerations, maneuvering space and policy perspectives. By cross-examining competing Russian and Western influences Miklossy and Smith create a persuasive context of regional political choices.

The nature and content of Kemalist ideology in Turkey during the last twenty years is analysed in this book. In order to place the current manifestations of this Turkish official modernising ideology in the two-part context of globalisation and the re-sacralisation of the world, Contemporary Kemalism scrutinises the texts of five prominent Kemalist intellectuals. After defining the unquestioned ideological premises of Kemalism, such as its implied liberal philosophy of history, and its idea about human nature, the book describes Kemalism's vision of the ideal society. Kemalism's close relationship to social democracy and neo-nationalism is then discussed in detail. Also included is an analysis of contemporary Kemalism's relation to earlier Kemalist articulations. The study demonstrates that various previous assumptions, both Western and Turkish, concerning Kemalism's nature and content are too simplistic, and thus unable to account for the endurance of this ideology and its continuing relevancy in present-day Turkey. Inviting the reader to contemplate contemporary Kemalism's ambiguous relationship with the Western world, this book will be of value to scholars and researchers with an interest in Middle Eastern Politics, Modernization Theory and Political Ideology.

This book offers a comprehensive account of Turkey's foreign policy narratives in a period of global power shifts. By examining international and national historical processes, the author highlights narrative processes and traditions that describe Turkey and its position in world politics. He also analyzes how global power shifts, such as the rise of China, affect Turkey's increasingly active and confusing foreign policy and the narratives associated with it. The book covers topics such as Kemalist modernization, Islamic conservative views of the New World Order, Turkey's relations with non-Western countries such as Russia and China, and Turkish narratives of the Syrian war and the COVID-19-pandemic. It is intended for scholars of international relations and European and Middle Eastern politics, and appeals to anyone interested in Turkish history and politics.

This book discusses the role of political narratives in shaping perceptions of instability and conceptions of order in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The authors illustrate how, in times of socio-political turmoil and outbursts of discontent such as the Arab Spring, political entrepreneurs explain and justify their political agendas by complementing hard power solutions with attractive ideas and discursive constructions that appeal to domestic constituencies and geopolitical allies. The book is divided into two parts. The first focuses on non-state actors, such as confessional communities and ideological movements, who aim to develop narratives that are convincing to their respective polities. It also studies regional powers that seek to determine their positions in a competitive environment via distinctive narrations of order. In part two, the authors investigate the narratives of global players that aim to explain and justify their role in an evolving international order.