Neither Ideological nor Geopolitical: Turkey Needs a ‘Growth’-Based Grand Strategy

Year 2020, Volume: 25 Issue: 2, 227 - 252, 04.01.2021

Ersel Aydınlı

Abstract

This article proposes a new conceptualization of “grand strategy” in International Relations terms, as a balance between capacity and aspiration. It first identifies the contemporary predicament of grand strategizing in the age of modern populist democratic trends, by highlighting the sustainability and consensus problem resulting from the public’s rapidly shifting support levels for such grand policies. It then discusses whether that predicament makes grand strategizing impossible in Turkey, concluding that with careful formulation, it can be overcome. It identifies status inconsistency as the prime instinct driving grand strategizing potential and desire in Turkey, and evaluates eight possible grand ‘ideas’ that have emerged at various times and could serve as reference points for Turkish grand strategy-three ideological ones: modernization, Islamism and Ottomanism; three geopolitical ones: ‘being part of the West’, Eurasianism and ‘being part of the East’; and two ‘others’: survival and growth. The discussion of these various ideas reaches the conclusion that the most feasible Turkish grand strategy is one based on the idea of growth an apolitical concept that contains both domestic dimensions evolving around democratic liberalization, and international ones based on economic and trade development.

Keywords

grand strategy, democratic populism, status inconsistency, growth, Turkey

References

• References are indicated in the article References are indicated in the article References are indicated in the article