Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T02:02:03.224Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Worldviews and Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Meliha Benli Altunışık
Meliha Benli Altunışık*
Affiliation:
Department of International Relations, Middle East Technical University, 06531, Ankara, maltunis@metu.edu.tr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East has become highly contested in the last two decades. The changes in the international and domestic environment have led to the emergence of competing ideas as to the elements of Turkish foreign policy in this region. This article argues that these ideas ultimately represent worldviews as they start with different assumptions about what Turkey is, what the basis of Turkey's interest and involvement should be in this region, to what extent Turkey should engage the Middle East, and what the threats and/or opportunities emanating from the region are. Each of these worldviews has been institutionalized to some extent. I conclude that these worldviews continue to co-exist and compete with each other in Turkish foreign policy today.

Keywords

Turkish foreign policyTurkey in the Middle Eastworld-views
Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 40: Special Issue on Turkish Foreign Policy , Spring 2009 , pp. 169 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altunışık, Meliha B. “Güvenlik Kıskacında Türkiye-Ortadoğu İlişkileri.” In En Uzun On Yıl, edited by Kut, Şule and Özcan, Cencer. İstanbul: Boyut, 1998.Google Scholar
Altunışık, Meliha B.. “The Possibilities and Limits of Turkey’s Soft Power in the Middle East.” Insight Turkey 10, no. 2 (2008).Google Scholar
Altunışık, Meliha B., and Tür, Özlem. “From Distant Neighbours to Partners? Changing Syrian-Turkish Relations.” Security Dialogue 37, no. 2 (2006): 229–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aral, Berdal. “Dispensing with Tradition? Turkish Politics and International Society during the Özal Decade 1983-93.” Middle Eastern Studies 37, no. S1 (2001): 72–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aydın, Mustafa. Ten Years After: Turkey’s Culf Policy (1990-1991) Revisited. London: Frank Cass, 2002.Google Scholar
Aykan, Mahmut Bali. Türkiye’nin Kuveyt Krizi (1990-1991) Politikası. Ankara: Foreign Policy Institute, 1998.Google Scholar
Barlas, Mehmet. Turgut Özal’ın Anıları, İstanbul: Sabah, 1994.Google Scholar
Cem, İsmail. Turkey in the New Century. Nicosia: Rüstern, 2001.Google Scholar
Cemal, Hasan. Özal Hikayesi. Ankara: Bilgi, 1990.Google Scholar
Davutoğlu, Ahmet. Stratejik Derinlik, İstanbul: Küre Yayınları, 2001.Google Scholar
Davutoğlu, Ahmet. “Turkey’s New Foreign Policy Vision.” Insight Turkey 10, no. S1 (2008): 77–96.Google Scholar
Doyle, Michael W.Ways of War and Peace. New York: Norton, 1997.Google Scholar
Dündar, Can. Ben Böyle Veda Etmeliyim, İstanbul: İş Bankası, 2008.Google Scholar
Esmer, Alparslan. “Israel Asks Turkey for Active Role in Peace Process.” Turkish Daily News, 8 July 1998.Google Scholar
Gül, Abdullah. “Turkey’s Role in a Changing Middle East Environment.” Mediterrannean Quarterly 15, no. S1 (2004): 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
İdiz, Semih. “Talking about Talking to the Iraqi Kurds.” Turkish Daily News, 1 March 2007.Google Scholar
Jung, Dietrich. “Turkey and the Arab World: Historical Narratives and New Political Realities.” Mediterranean Quarterly 10, no. S1 (2005): 1–17.Google Scholar
Karpat, Kemal H. “Turkish and Arab-Israeli Relations.” In Turkey’s Foreign Policy in Transition, 1950-1974, edited by Karpat, Kemal H.. Leiden: Brill, 1975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mowle, Thomas S. “Worldviews in Foreign Policy: Realism, Liberalism and External Conflict.” Political Psychology 24, no. 3 (2003): 561–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mufti, Malik. “From Swamp to Backyard: The Middle East in Turkish Foreign Policy.” In The Middle East Enters the 21” Century, edited by Freedman, Robert O., 80–110. Gainsville: University Press of Florida, 2002.Google Scholar
Özal, Turgut. Turkey in Europe and Europe in Turkey. Nicosia: Rüstern, 1991.Google Scholar
Park, Bill, Turkey’s Policy Towards Northern Iraq: Problems and Perspectives. London: Routledge, 2005.Google Scholar
Robins, Philip. “The Foreign Policy of Turkey.” In Foreign Policies of Middle East States, edited by Hinnebusch, Raymond and Ehteshami, Anoushirivan, 311–33. London: Lynne Reinner, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, Philip. Turkey and the Middle East. London: Pinter Publishers, 1991.Google Scholar
Saunders, Phillip C. “Foreign Policy and International Transition: The Case for Foreign Policy Paradigms.” Paper presented at the International Studies Association, 40th Annual Convention, Washington, 1620 February 1999.Google Scholar
Sayan, Sabri. “Turkey: Changing European Security Environment and the Gulf Crisis.” Middle East Journal 46, no. S1 (1992): 9–21.Google Scholar
Taşpınar, Ömer. “An Uneven Fit? The “Turkish Model” and the Arab World.” (August 2003), http://www. brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2003/08islamicworld_taspinar/taspinar20030801.pdf.Google Scholar