Britanya İstisnacılığının Adasallığı: Eleştirel Jeopolitik Perspektifinden Bir İnceleme

Year 2023, Volume: 15 Issue: 1, 110 - 140, 15.02.2023

Pınar Uz-hançarlı İsmet Parlak

https://doi.org/10.53376/ap.2023.05

Abstract

31 Ocak 2020’de Avrupa Birliği’nden resmi olarak ayrılma sürecini tamamlayan Britanya’nın tarihsel olarak Topluluk ile kurduğu ilişki “tuhaf/isteksiz ortak”, “yarı-ayrık ilişki” gibi tanımlamalar çerçevesinde sürdürülmüştür. Bu ilişkide istisnacılık söylem ve siyasetini benimseyen bir ülke olarak Britanya, ada ülkesi olma halini ve adasallığını hem ulusal kimliğin oluşumuna dahil etmiş hem de Avrupa Ekonomik Topluluğu/Avrupa Birliği politikalarının dışında kalma ya da bunu talep etme meşruiyetini sağlamak için kullanmıştır. Meşruiyetini coğrafyanın doğal ve verili olması kabulünden alan Britanya adasallığının istisnacılık söylem ve siyasetine nasıl bir katkı yaptığı bu çalışmanın temel araştırma sorusudur. Sosyal bilimlerin coğrafi incelemelerindeki tarihsel boşluğu doldurmaya çalışan eleştirel jeopolitik perspektifin kullanıldığı bu çalışmada, araştırma sorusunun cevaplanması için Britanya Parlamentosu’ndaki milletvekillerinin Avrupa Ekonomik Topluluğu/Avrupa Birliği üyelik dönemi boyunca yaptıkları konuşmalar “ada ülkesi olma hali” temelinde incelenmiştir. Bu doğrultuda incelenen söylem örneklerinin Britanya kimliğini Avrupa’nın karşıtı olarak yeniden üretme amacının yanı sıra, Ortak Balıkçılık Politikası ile sınır ve göç politikaları gibi alanlarda istisnacı bir yaklaşımla muafiyet meşruiyeti oluşturmaya katkı sağladığı söylenebilir.

Keywords

Britanya, İstisnacılık, Jeopolitik, Adasallık, Avrupa Birliği

Insularity of British Exceptionalism: An Analysis from the Perspective of Critical Geopolitics

Abstract

Historically, Britain has been following a relation with the EEC/EU which could be labelled as “awkward/reluctant partner” or “semi-detached relationship” and completed its official leaving procedure from membership on January 31, 2020. In this affair, Britain, as a country embracing exceptionalist discourse and politics, has both enclosed its insularity to the national identity formation and used it to be excluded from EEC/EU policies or demand an opt-out legitimately. This study tries to give an answer for the question of how insularity taking its legitimacy from natural and given geography affects British exceptionalism by adopting Critical geopolitics perspective which attempts to fill the historical gap in the geographical inquiries within the social sciences. For this aim, the speeches of MPs in British Parliament in the time period of British membership in the EEC/EU were analysed on the basis of being an “island nation”. This study concludes that the analysed discourse both paves the ground for the reproduction of British identity as opposed to European one and also contributes the legitimation of exceptionalist policies of Britain in the realm of Common Fisheries Policy and border and migration regime of the EEC/EU.

Keywords

Britain, Exceptionalism, Geopolitics, Insularity, European Union

References

• Agnew, John (1983), “An Excess of ‘National Exceptionalism’: Towards a New Political Geography of American Foreign Policy”, Political Geography Quarterly, 2 (2): 151-166.
• Agnew, John (1995), “The Hidden Geographies of Social Science and the Myth of the ‘Geographical Turn”, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 13: 379-380.
• Agnew, John (2003), Geopolitics: Re-visioning World Politics (London, UK: Routledge).
• Anderson, Perry (1992), English Questions (London: Verso).
• Aydın Düzgit, Senem (2011), “Avrupa Birliği-Türkiye İlişkilerine Postyapısalcı Yaklaşım: Almanya Örneğinde Dış Politika ve Söylem Analizi”, Uluslararası İlişkiler, 8 (29): 49-70.
• Aylmer, Gerald E (1990), “The Pecularities of The English State”, Journal of Historical Sociology, 3 (2): 91-108.
• Bache Ian ve Andrew Jordan (2006), “Britain in Europe and Europe in Britain”, In Bache, Ian ve Andrew Jordan (Der), The Europeanization of British Politics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan): 3-16.
• BBC (2016), “EU Referendum Results”, https://bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results (18.06.2022).
• Blizzard, Bob (2001, 5 Aralık), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 376, c. 428.
• Cameron, David (2011, 27 Haziran), Hansard, HC Deb, vol 530, c. 616.
• Cook, Robin (1997, 12 Kasım), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 300, c. 910.
• Copeaux, Etienne (1998), “Türkiye’de Tarih Öğretimi ve Yurttaşlık”, Balibar, Etienne, Dominique Borne, Jacques Bouineau, Etienne Copeaux, Jean Leca, ve Dominique Schnapper (Der.), Dersimiz: Yurttaşlık (İstanbul: Kesit Yayıncılık) (Çev. Turhan Ilgaz): 167-185.
• Daily Mail (2014), “EU Lets One Dutch Ship Net a QUARTER of England’s Fishing Quota and Take It to Holland as It Holds 23% of Permits”, https://dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2821284/EU-lets-one-Dutch-ship-net-QUARTER-England-s-fishing-quota-Holland-holds-23-permits.html (28.10.2022).
• Defay, Alexandre (2005), Jeopolitik (Ankara: Dost Kitabevi Yayınları) (Çev. İsmail Yerguz).
• Dodds, Klaus (1993), “Geopolitics, Experts and the Making of Foreign Policy”, Area, 25 (1): 70–74.
• Dodds, Klaus (2007), Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press).
• Drax, Richard (2016, 3 Şubat), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 605, c. 955.
• Elden, Stuart (2010), “Thinking Territory Historically”, Geopolitics, 15 (4): 757–761.
• Emeklier, Bilgehan (2012), “Fransa’nın Etnik Sorunlarına Politik-Psikolojik Bir Yaklaşım: Korsika Örneği”, Sandıklı, Atilla (Der.), Teoriler Işığında Güvenlik, Savaş, Barış ve Çatışma Çözümleri (İstanbul: Bilgesam Yayınları): 313-385.
• Fairclough, Norman ve Gunther Kress (1993), Critical Discourse Analysis: Manuscript (New York: Longman).
• Gamble, Andrew (1998), “The European Issue in British Politics”, Baker, David ve David Seawright (Der.), Britain for and Against Europe: British Politics and the Question of European Integration (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 11-30.
• Gapes, Mike (1998, 15 Ocak), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 304, c. 563.
• George, Stephen (1990), An Awkward Partner: Britain in the European Community (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
• Gietel-Basten, Stuart (2016), “Why Brexit? The Toxic Mix of Immigration and Austerity”, Population and Development Review, 42 (4): 673–680.
• Gifford, Chris (2004), The British State and European Integration: The Politics of Modernisation (Yayımlanmamış Doktora Tezi) (London: London School of Economics).
• Gifford, Chris (2006), “The Rise of Post-Imperial Populism: The Case of Right Wing Euroscepticism in Britain”, European Journal of Political Research, 45 (5): 851-869.
• Gifford, Chris (2008), The Making of Eurosceptic Britain: Identity and Economy in a Post-Imperial State (Hampshire: Ashgate).
• Glencross, Andrew (2014), “British Euroscepticism as British Exceptionalism: The Forty-Year ‘Neverendum’ on the Relationship with Europe”, Studia Diplomatica, 67 (4): 7-20.
• Glencross, Andrew (2020), “Love Europe, Hate The EU: A Genealogical Inquiry Into Populists’ Spatio-Cultural Critique of the European Union and Its Consequences”, European Journal of International Relations, 26 (1): 116-136.
• Gottmann, Jean (1973), The Significance of Territory (US: University of Virginia Press).
• Gowland, David, Arthur Turner ve Alex Wright (2009), Britain and European Integration Since 1945: On the Sidelines (London: Routledge).
• Gökmen, Semra Rana (2010), Geopolitics and the Study of International Relations (Yayınlanmamış Doktora Tezi) (Ankara: ODTÜ Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü).
• Harper, Lawrance (1939), The English Navigation Laws: A Seventeenth-Century Experiment in Social Engineering (New York: Columbia University Press).
• Hay, Peter (2006), “A Phenomenology of Islands”, Island Studies Journal, 1 (1): 19-42.
• Hayes, John (2003, 16 Ocak), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 397, c.879.
• Hill, Christopher (2016), İngiltere’de Devrim Çağı 1603-1714 (İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları).
• Hopkins, Kelvin (2007, 20 Haziran), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 461, c. 1418.
• Hopkins, Kelvin (2013, 18 Haziran) Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 564, c. 784.
• Hopkins, Kelvin (2014, 17 Ekim), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 586, c. 604.
• Horam, John (2003, 19 Mart), Hansard, HC Deb, vol.401 c.280.
• Hordern, Peter (1993, 20 Mayıs), Hansard, HC Deb, vol 423, c. 225.
• Johnson, James (1977, 10 Ocak), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 923, c. 1116.
• Kaiser, Ward ve Denis Wood (2001), Seeing Through Maps: The Power of Images to Shape Our World View (ODT Incorporated).
• Kazemipur, Abdolmohammad (2006), “A Canadian Exceptionalism? Trust and Diversity in Canadian Cities”, Journal of International Migration and Integration, 7 (2): 219-240.
• Krause, Jill ve Neil Renwick (1996), “Introduction”, Krause Jill ve Neil Renwick (Der.), Identities in International Relations (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan): x-xv.
• Kumar, Krishan (2003a), The Making of English National Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
• Kumar, Krishan (2003b), “Britain, England and Europe Cultures in Contraflow”, European Journal of Social Theory, 6 (1): 5-23.
• Law, Alex (2005), “Of Navies and Navels: Britain as a Mental Island”, Geografiska Annaler, Series B, Human Geography, 87 (4) :267–77.
• Leadsom, Andrea (2011, 24 Mayıs), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 528, c. 90.
• Leigh Edward (2016, 23 Mart), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 607, c. 1584.
• Lilley, Peter (2008, 11 Mart), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 473, c. 239.
• Lowenthal, David (2007), “Islands, Lovers, And Others” Geographical Review 97(2): 202–229.
• Mackinlay, Craig (2015, 3 Aralık), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 603, c.188.
• Major, John (1992, 20 Mayıs), Hansard, HC Deb, vol 208, c.270.
• Mamadouh Virginie ve Gertjan Dijkink (2006), “Geopolitics, International Relations and Political Geography: The Politics of Geopolitical Discourse”, Geopolitics, 11 (3): 349-366.
• Mardin, Şerif (2005), “Turkish Islamic Exceptionalism Yesterday and Today: Continuity, Rupture and Reconstruction in Operational Codes”, Turkish Studies 6 (2): 145-166.
• Marten, Neil (1976, 19 Temmuz), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 915, c. 1405.
• McAngus, Craig ve Simon Usherwood (2016, 10 June), “British Fishermen Want Out of the EU - Here’s Why”, https://theconversation.com/british-fishermen-want-out-of-the-eu-heres-why-60803 (28.10.2022).
• Merom, Gil (1999), “Israel’s National Security and the Myth of Exceptionalism”, Political Science Quarterly, 114 (3): 409-434.
• Moore, Margaret (2015), A Political Theory of Territory (Oxford University Press).
• More, Thomas (1965, [1516]), Utopia (Harmondsworth: Penguin).
• Mountz, Alison (2015), “Political Geography II: Islands and Archipelagos”, Progress in Human Geography, 39 (59): 636-646.
• Mölder, Holger (2018), “British Approach to the European Union: From Tony Blair to David Cameron”, Troitiño, David Ramiro, Tanel Kerikmäe ve Archil Chochia (Der.), Brexit (Cham: Springer): 53-173.
• Nairn, Tom (1964), “The British Political Elite”, New Left Review, 23 (19): 19-25.
• Nicholson, Adam (2007), “The Islands”, Geographical Review, 97: 153–164.
• Orhan, Bilgen ve Servet Karabağ (2021), “Mülk ve Mülkiyet”, Turkish Studies – Social Sciences, 16 (4): 1601-1619.
• Öniş Ziya ve Ali Burak Güven (2011), “Global Crisis, National Responses: The Political Economy of Turkish Exceptionalism”, New Political Economy, 16 (5): 585-608.
• Paasi, Anssi (2003), “Territory”, Agnew, John, Katharyne Mitchell ve Gerhard Toal (Der.), A Companion to Political Geography (UK: Blackwell Publishers): 109-122.
• Parish, Neil (2012, 15 Mart), Hansard HC Deb, vol. 542, c. 473.
• Perera, Suvendrini (2009), Australia and the Insular Imagination: Beaches, Borders, Boats, and Bodies (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).
• Pollice, Fabio (2003), “The Role of Territorial Identity in Local Development Processes”, Claval, Paul, Maria Paola Pagnini ve Maurizio Scaini (Der.), The Cultural Turn in Geography: Proceedings of the Conference Gorizia Campus (Trieste: EUT): 107–117.
• Quin, Joyce (1983), “EEC Fisheries Policy”, Journal of Agricultural Economics, 34 (3): 337-347.
• Roberts, Wyn (1996, 11 Aralık), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 287, c. 341
• Royle, Stephen (2001), A Geography of Islands: Small Island Insularity (London: Routledge).
• Sayer, Derek (1992), “A Notable Administration: English State Formation and the Rise of Capitalism”, American Journal of Sociology, 97 (5): 1382-1415.
• Simmel, Georg (1997), “The Sociology of Space”, Frisby, David ve Mike Featherstone (Der.), Simmel on Culture (London: Sage): 137-170.
• Smith, Anthony D (2006), “‘Set in the Silver Sea’: English National Identity and European Integration”, Nations and Nationalism, 12/3: 433-452.
• Smith, Julie (2005), “A Missed Opportunity? New Labour's European Policy 1997–2005”, International Affairs, 81 (4): 703-721.
• Smithers, Peter (1963), “Britain and Europe” Chronique de politique étrangère, 16(3): 307-320.
• Spiering, Menno (2015), A Cultural History of British Euroscepticism (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
• Stewart, Bryce Donald ve Bethan Christine O'Leary, (2017), “Post-Brexit Policy in the UK: A New Dawn? Fisheries, Seafood and the Marine Environment”, https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.35329.76641 (28.10.2022).
• Stratford, Elaine (2006), “Technologies of Agency and Performance: Tasmania Together and the Constitution of Harmonious Island Identity”, Geoforum, 37 (2): 273–286.
• Studlar, Donley T (2001), “Canadian Exceptionalism: Explaining Differences Over Time in Provincial and Federal Voter Turnout”, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 34 (2): 299-319.
• The Conversation (2015), “Fact Check: is 80% of UK Fish Given Away to the Rest of Europe?”, https://theconversation.com/fact-check-is-80-of-uk-fish-given-away-to-the-rest-of-europe-39966 (28.10.2022).
• Tournier-Sol, Karine ve Chris Gifford (Der.) (2015), The UK Challenge to Europeanization: The Persistence of British Euroscepticism (Basingstoke: Palgrave).
• Tyrell, Ian (1991), “American Exceptionalism in an Age of International History”, The American Historical Review, 96 (4): 1031-1055.
• Uz-Hançarlı, Pınar (2019), Britanya İstisnacılığının Avrupa Entegrasyonu Sürecinde Parlamento Konuşmaları Üzerinden Analizi (Yayımlanmamış Doktora Tezi) (Denizli: Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü).
• Van der Wusten, Herman ve Gertjan Dijkink (2002), “German, British and French Geopolitics: The Enduring Differences”, Geopolitics, 7 (3): 19-38.
• Wadsworth, Jonathan, Swati Dhingra, Gianmarco Ottaviano ve John Van Reenen (2016), “Brexit and the Impact of Immigration on the UK”, CEP Brexit Analysis, 5.
• Wall, Stephen (2008), Stranger in Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
• Whittaker, Nick (2016), The Island Race: Geopolitics and Identity in British Foreign Policy Discourse Since 1949 (Yayımlanmamış Doktora Tezi) (Sussex: University of Sussex).
• Whittaker, Nick (2018), “The Island Race: Ontological Security and Critical Geopolitics in British Parliamentary Discourse”, Geopolitics, 23 (4): 954-985.
• Wiener, Antje (1999), “Forging Flexibility - The British 'No' to Schengen”, European Journal of Migration and Law, 1: 441-463.
• Winterton, Ann (2001, 6 Aralık), Hansard, HC Deb, vol. 376 c. 510.
• Wodak, Ruth (2002), “The Discourse-Historical Approach”, Wodak, Ruth ve Michael Meyer (Der.), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (Londra: Sage): 63-95.
• Yanık, Lerna (2011), “Constructing Turkish “Exceptionalism”: Discourses of Liminality and Hybridity in Post-Cold War Turkish Foreign Policy”, Political Geography, 30 (2): 80-89.
• Yıldırım, Selin (2020), İsrail ve Suriye’nin Golan Tepeleri Üzerine Geliştirdikleri Söylemin Eleştirel Jeopolitik Analizi (Yayımlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi) (Ankara: TOBB Ekonomi ve Teknoloji Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü).
• Zahedieh, Nuala (2010), The Capital and the Colonies: London and the Atlantic Economy, 1660-1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
• Zotti, Antonio (2021), “The Immigration Policy of The United Kingdom: British Exceptionalism and the Renewed Quest for Control”, Ceccorulli, Michela, Sonia Lucarelli ve Enrico Fassi (Der.), The EU Migration System of Governance (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan): 57-88.