IDENTITY CRISIS SYNDROME IN MODERN TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
IDENTITY CRISIS SYNDROME IN MODERN TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
Yazar: Çalış, Şaban
Dergi: Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İşletme Fakültesi Dergisi, Vol. 1 No. 1, 2014
Anahtar kelimeler: Foreign Policy, Identity, Nation, State ; Foreign Policy, Identity, Nation, State

For many analysts particularly in the Western, modern Turkish foreign policy has been living in a kind of identity crisis since the end of the Cold War. According to some of them, it is so, because the end of the Cold War has fundamentally changed traditional understanding of international relations, which was based on security calculations and ideological confrontations in particular. Instead, what the emerging new world order has brought about is the fact that international relations would be a bit more culturally oriented. Therefore, due to its geopolitical and historical position, Turkey would face a challenge of new ethnic and religious demand coming from inside and outside. Some of these analysts argued that Turkey would inevitably reconsider its national identity definition and then conventional patterns of foreign policy making in order to provide an answer but this would create an identity crisis. However, all of these arguments are rather speculative in essence. That is simply because, traditional patterns of modern Turkish foreign policy have not been determined by ethnic, religious and cultural considerations only. In order to understand the foundations and determinants of modern Turkish foreign policy, the concept of national identity would not be enough either. Instead, Turkey has a powerful state tradition and therefore a powerful, well-defined state identity which has since 1923 played a role enough to determine modern foreign policy.

For many analysts particularly in the Western, modern Turkish foreign policy has been living in a kind of identity crisis since the end of the Cold War. According to some of them, it is so, because the end of the Cold War has fundamentally changed traditional understanding of international relations, which was based on security calculations and ideological confrontations in particular. Instead, what the emerging new world order has brought about is the fact that international relations would be a bit more culturally oriented. Therefore, due to its geopolitical and historical position, Turkey would face a challenge of new ethnic and religious demand coming from inside and outside. Some of these analysts argued that Turkey would inevitably reconsider its national identity definition and then conventional patterns of foreign policy making in order to provide an answer but this would create an identity crisis. However, all of these arguments are rather speculative in essence. That is simply because, traditional patterns of modern Turkish foreign policy have not been determined by ethnic, religious and cultural considerations only. In order to understand the foundations and determinants of modern Turkish foreign policy, the concept of national identity would not be enough either. Instead, Turkey has a powerful state tradition and therefore a powerful, well-defined state identity which has since 1923 played a role enough to determine modern foreign policy.