Türkiye Maarif Vakfı: Türk dış politikasında yumuşak güç aracı

During the Cold War, military and economic power as elements of hard power constituted the basic instruments of international relations and foreign policy. During this period, realism dominated international relations, and due to security concerns, states put great effort to increase their military and economic power against other states that they considered rivals. The end of the Cold War, on the other hand, led to significant changes in international relations, foreign policy and state behaviors. In the new world order emerging after the Cold War, states preferred to use more peaceful methods rather than hard power in their relations with other states including both soft power and public diplomacy. They opted for developing good relations with other states and endeavored to influence societies by elements of attraction. Many countries across the world started to integrate soft power – which means using attraction element and influencing foreign societies – and public diplomacy in the last decade of the 20th century. In this context, they established new institutions in addition to converting existing state institutions. Although Turkey was rather late to perform the necessary transformation in this field, it started to use soft power and public diplomacy thanks to the transformation in its foreign policy and new institutions in the 21st century. Indeed, the importance attached to education abroad, student scholarships and opening schools in foreign countries was a reflection of the transformation in foreign policy. This doctoral thesis will explore the activities of Turkish Maarif Waqf (Education Foundation), its place foreign policy and its impact on public diplomacy in detail. The study will seek answers to the following questions: Does Turkish public diplomacy have a wide enough network in the field of education? Compared to one of its counterparts in the world, the UK, what is the rate of Turkey's activities in the field of education abroad? Does Turkey apply public diplomacy in its foreign policy? Key Words: Turkish Maarif Waqf, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power