Turkey, Power and the West: Gendered International Relations and Foreign Policy

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During the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoan and the AKP, the Turkish government shifted from a 'reactive' to an 'activist' foreign policy. As a result, many in the West increasingly began to see Turkey as a key actor in the international relations of the region, and indeed the wider international stage. Turkey and the West offers a unique approach to this transformation and considers questions of Turkish national identity and its relations with the West through the lens of gender studies. From the Ottoman Empire to the present day, the book constructs an image of Turkish foreign policy as reflecting a gendered insecurity - one of a 'non-Western' Turkish masculinity subordinated to a 'Western' hegemonic masculinity - and shows how Turkey's 'subordination' has in turn been internalised by its own politicians. Across a diverse range of sources, Bilgic takes advantage of new theories such as critical security studies (CSS) to paint a picture of a Turkish republic anxious to make its mark on the world stage, yet perennially insecure about its position as a global power. Turkey and the West is essential for students and researchers interested in Turkish politics and the international relations of the Middle East, as well as those with an interest in gender and identity studies.

Reviews

'This is a superbly written and thoroughly researched original study that contributes in highly significant ways to three literatures not normally brought together: foreign policy studies, gender/feminist research, and postcolonial perspectives through which the East/West binary is reimagined.' - Terrell Carver, Professor of Political Theory, University of Bristol, 'Ali Bilgic shows us here why asking smart gender analytical questions is so crucial if IR practitioners hope to be useful and reliable. Turkey, Power and the West reveals the ways in which masculinities are wielded by the US, the EU and current Turkish officials of the Erdogan government. In contesting past allegedly-feminizing humiliations with contemporary assertions of masculinized militarism, Turkish elites have a lot of company.' - Cynthia Enloe, author of the newly updated Bananas, Beaches and Bases, '... breaks new ground by deploying the insights of feminist and post-colonial theory to bear on Turkish foreign policy, thereby making a much needed critical intervention into the debates on Turkey's relations with the world ... a most welcome addition to the literature on Turkish foreign policy.' - Asli Calkivik, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Istanbul Technical University

Author Bio

Ali Bilgic is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara. He holds a PhD from Aberystwyth University in the UK. Dr Bilgic is the editor responsible for Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa for the Journal of Contemporary European Research and a member of the communication team for International Political Sociology. He is the author of Rethinking Security in the Age of Migration: Trust and Emancipation in Europe (2013) and his articles have appeared in Review of International Studies, Eurasian Geography and Economics, Journal of Southeast Europe and Black Sea Studies."