Soft power tools of Turkish foreign policy: The Balkans

The Cold War forced Turkish foreign policy to follow the realist paradigm for a long time and produce policies in line with the West bloc, to which it belonged. From 1945 to 1990, security was the top of the agenda for Turkish Foreign Policy, while endeavoring to remain parallel to the policies of the West. The collapse of the Soviet Union led the way also for the collapse of the dominant paradigm in international relations that had shaped according to the distinction between the East and West block. In the new world order, states strived to develop their areas of action and influence over others. One of the pillars of hard power, military power fell of the agenda in consequence of these developments with one exception: Military power could be used only in necessary cases, and it was to be excluded in all other situations due to being expensive. Thus, the post-Cold War realist paradigm is now replaced by constructivism. In this regard, it has become one of the basic principles in international relations to convince any counter-actor without resorting to military means and to expand a state's own sphere of influence through such persuasion. In other words, soft power has started to gain importance in international relations. On the other hand, Turkey could not adapt to new world order after the 1990, and followed the realist paradigm due to its security concerns. However, Turkish foreign policy started to value soft power elements as well, following the process starting with Foreign Minister İsmail Cem. This process was further supported by the establishment of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency in 1992, Yunus Emre Institute in 2007, Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities in 2010 and Education Foundation in 2016. Aiming to expand its sphere of influence and soft power by means of these institutions, Turkey began to form public opinion in an attempt to follow active policies in the Balkans as well as many other regions. This study is designed to explore soft power practices of Turkish Foreign Policy in the Balkans in detail. The following research questions are taken as basis: What are sources and elements of Turkey's soft power? Does Turkey use soft power as a tool in the Balkans?