Problematizing Modernity in Turkish Foreign Policy:Identity, Sovereignty and Beyond
Problematizing Modernity in Turkish Foreign Policy:Identity, Sovereignty and Beyond

Summary/Abstract: Modern sovereignty and national identity are two main dimensions of the subjectivity of modern international politics: the Westphalian polity. Majority of “critical/cultural” studies of Turkish foreign policy open up the identity dimension and examine the role of Western identity in Turkish foreign policy. Nevertheless, the place of sovereignty in Turkish foreign policy draws not much attention due to state-centrism. Indeed, the reproduction of “Turkey” as a bounded totality is essential characteristics of Turkish foreign policy. Moreover, this lack of attention to sovereignty also results in the negligence of the role of interaction between identity and sovereignty in Turkish foreign policy. In effect, Turkey’s search for Western identity cannot be thought apart from its subscription to Westphalian polity. In light of this intimate nexus between identity and sovereignty, this study offers a noval conception of Turkish foreign policy, which frames foreign policy as the production of particular subjectivity.

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