Turkish “Foreign Policy” Towards the European Union Under AK Party Rule: From “Europeanization” to the “Alliance of Civilizations”

Yıl 2012, Cilt: 2 Sayı: 1, 35 - 50, 14.06.2013

Ali Aslan

Öz

This study applies poststructuralist foreign policy analysis in Turkey's relationswith the EU. It argues that in order to enervate the existing hegemony in the domesticrealm, the AK Party put the objective of integration with the EU at the top of its foreignpolicy agenda in its early years. However, as the existing hegemony weakened, the AKParty has launched its project of constructing a conservative society. In order to achievethis goal, it has gradually engaged in re-articulating Turkey's relations with the EU aroundthe theme of the alliance of civilizations and also pushed back EU integration process inits foreign policy agenda. The secular and liberal sectors of society have argued that thischange derails Turkey from the “civilizing” process and undercutting democratization.The leaders of AK Party, in response, assert that Turkey's goal for EU membership is stillon the table but with a caveat: it is not integration with the civilization; it is rather relationsamong civilizations.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Poststructuralism, Foreign policy, Turkey-EU relations, Europeanization, Alliance of civilizations

Kaynakça

• Anderson, Benedict (1983). Imagined Communities, London and New York: Verso.
• Ashley, Richard K. (1988). “Untying the Sovereign State: A Double Reading of Anarchy Problematique,”
• Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 227-262.
• Biersteker, Th omas J. & Weber, Cynthia, (1996). eds., State Sovereignty as Social Construct, Cambridge: Cambridge
• University Press.
• Campbell, David (2010). “Poststructuralism,” in Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, and Steve Smith, eds., International
• Relations Th eory, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
• Devetak, Richard (1995). “Incomplete States: Th eories and Practices of Statecraft ,” in John Macmillan and
• Andrew Linklater, eds., Boundaries in Question: New Directions in International Relations, London and New York:
• Pinter Publishers.
• Edkins, Jenny & Persram Nalini and Pin-Fat,Veronique Sovereignty and Subjectivity, Colorado and London: Lynne
• Rienner Pub., 1999.
• Erdogan, Recep Tayyip (2004). “Açılış Konuşması [Keynote Speech],” Uluslararası Muhafazakarlık ve Demokrasi
• Sempozyumu [International Symposium on Conservatism and Democracy, UMDS], Ankara: AK Parti Yayınları.
• Hale, William and Ozbudun Ergun (2010). Islamism, Democracy, and Liberalism in Turkey: Th e Case of the AKP,
• New York: Routledge.
• Laclau, Ernesto and Mouff e, Chantal, (1985). Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, London: Verso.
• Weber, Cynthia (1995). Simulating Sovereignty, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,