Identity-foreign policy nexus: Turkish state identity's influence on Turkish foreign policy

The aim of this study is to scrutinize the relationship between identity and foreign policy in the scope of Turkish State Identity and to examine the construction of the identity that has been influencing the contemporary Turkish Foreign Policy. The study secondarily aims at exploring the instruments and the identity imaginations influencing the contemporary Turkish foreign policy. The hypothesis of the thesis is that the identity imaginations influencing Turkish Foreign Policy have been built in line with the instruments of soft power and during the construction of this identity Turkey?s foreign policy have not been exposed to an ?axis shift?, contrarily Turkey drew its own axis. This identity, following Turkey?s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu`s ascription of soft power as the core principle the foreign policy vision of Turkey is laid on, is named as the identity of ?soft power? which has been influential in Turkish Foreign Policy between 2002 and 2012. In this scope, the first chapter of the study is devoted to the explanation of the conceptualizations of identity and foreign policy in the International Relations literature and to the elucidation of the interrelationship between identity and foreign policy. The second chapter, namely ?Search for identity in Turkish Foreign Policy?, deals with the first decade of the post-Cold War era, the pre Justice and Development era in Turkey (1991-2002). In this chapter, initially the domestic and international contents are summarized. Following this, the construction and continuance of the Westernist identity, as the state identity that influences the foreign policy, is elaborated. Yet, more importantly this westernist identity`s competition with the alternative identities such as Eurasianism, neo-Ottomanism, or Islamism are analyzed. In the meantime, the historical roots, content, holders, influences, and salience of these identities are portrayed respectively. Put differently, with reference to the competition between the historical Westernist state identity and these relatively new identities, the study strives to examine whether these alternative identities were salient enough to be a `state identity`. The third chapter focuses on the post-9/11 era Turkish foreign policy and initially looks at to depict the general view of the diplomatic relations. Afterwards, the newly emerged discourses on foreign policy are examined and their degrees of influence are displayed. The final subsection in this chapter deals with the notions of soft power and culture diplomacy those are gradually gaining prominence in Turkish foreign policy. The forth chapter, ?The Soft Power in Turkish Foreign Policy?, probes the notion of soft power in Turkish foreign policy and its impact on the building of a new state identity. In the same vein, the chapter thoroughly examines the soft power institutions in foreign policy, their activities and outcomes during 1991-2002 and 2002-2012 periods. The reason for this detailed analysis is to test the hypothesis that `the state identity constructed between 2002 and 2012 is based on soft power`. The thesis ends with conclusion chapter. Key Words: 1. Turkish Foreign Policy 2. Identity-Foreign Policy Nexus 3. Soft Power 4. Public Diplomacy 5. State Identity