Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in Turkey

Year 2011, Volume: 16 Issue: 3, 5 - 23, 01.10.2011

İbrahim Kalın

Abstract

Turkey’s soft power capacity comes from its history, culture and geography. Rather than seeing them as obstacles or burdens, the Turks are now turning them into strategic assets in both domestic and foreign policy. The new Turkish public diplomacy is building on Turkey’s expanding soft power in the Balkans, the Middle East and the Caucasus. As Turkey engages new regions and emerging actors as well as continues relations with its old allies, it develops new capacities for the various elements of soft power and strategic communication in regional and global contexts. The new Turkey that is emerging is also creating a new Turkish narrative with multiple dimensions and faces. The task of the new Turkish public diplomacy is to tell the story of the new Turkey to a wide ranging audience across the globe. As Turkey overcomes its old fears and builds a new identity for itself, the process of change transforming the country will have a deep impact on Turkish domestic and foreign policy

Keywords

Public diplomacy, soft power, Turkish foreign policy, Office of Public Diplomacy, smart power.

References

• Bülent Aras and Hakan Fidan, “Turkey and Eurasia: Frontiers of a New Geographic Imagination”, New Perspectives on Turkey, No. 40 (Fall 2009), pp. 195–217.
• İbrahim Kalın, “Debating Turkey in the Middle East: The Dawn of a New Geopolitical Imagination”, Insight Turkey, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2009), pp. 83-96.
• İbrahim Kalın, “US-Turkish Relations under Obama: Promise, Challenge and Opportunity in the 21st Century”, Journal of Balkan and Near East Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2010), pp.93-108.
• İbrahim Kalın, “Turkey and the Middle East: Ideology or Geopolitics?” Private View, No.13 (Autumn 2008), pp.26-35.
• For full text of the decree and more information about Institute of Public Diplomacy activities, visit the official website of the Office of Public Diplomacy: http://kdk.gov.tr/.
• Joseph S. Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Succeed in World Politics, New York, Public Affairs, 2004.
• For Joseph Nye and Richard Armitage’s smart power project, available athttp://www.csis.org/ smartpower.
• For the concept of soft power in international literature and its meaning for Turkey, see the essays by Bilgin, Elis, Beng, Altunışık and Altınay in the special soft power issue of Insight Turkey, Vol. 10, No. 2 (April-June 2008).
• Peter Krause and Stephen Van Evera, Public Diplomacy: Ideas for the War of Ideas, Discussion Paper 09-10, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, 2009.
• Jarol B. Manheim, “The War of Images: Strategic Communication in the Gulf Conflict,” in Stanley A. Renshon (ed.), The Political Psychology of the Gulf War. Leaders, Publics, and the Process of Conflict, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993, pp.155-171.
• Jan Melissen, “The New Public Diplomacy: Between Theory and Practice”, in Jan Melissen (ed.), The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations, Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005, pp. 3-25.
• K.T. Paschke, K. T., Report on the Special Inspection of 14 German Embassies in the Countries of the European Union, Berlin, Auswärtiges Amt, 2002.
• Anna Michalski, “The EU as a Soft Power: The Force of Persuasion”, in Jan Melissen (ed.), The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations, Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005, pp. 124-144.
• Ali Fisher, “Four Seasons in One Day: The Crowded House of Public Diplomacy in the UK”, in Nancy Snow and Philip M. Taylor (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, New York, Routledge, 2009, pp.251-261.
• Gary Rawnsley, “China Talks Back: Public Diplomacy and Soft Power for the Chinese Century”, in Nancy Snow and Philip M. Taylor (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, New York, Routledge, 2009, p.284.
• The U.S. has used numerous strategies for propaganda purposes during the Cold War. For a comprehensive study of this matter, see Frances Stonor Saunders, Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, New York, The New Press, 1999.
• Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye, “A Smart Funding Strategy?” 24 April 2009, available at www.csis.org.
• For more on this, see İbrahim Kalın, İslam ve Batı, İstanbul, İSAM Yayınları, 2007.
• For example, the number of registered journalists residing in Turkey in 2002 was 36, whereas this number has increased to 265 by 2009. The diversity in foreign media agencies by region and nation demonstrate the shared interest in various parts of the world. Moreover, the attention paid to national and local elections taking place in Turkey since 2002 confirms the increasing political profile of Turkey.