Türkiye Bölgesel Hegemonya Arayışında Mı

Uluslararasıilişkilerde hegemonya kavramıgenellikle küresel düzeyde tartışma konusu edilmiştir. Realist yaklaşımlarda daha çok maddi güç unsurlarına dayalıolarak bir devletin başat güç haline gelmesini ve ötekiler üzerinde belirli düzeyde bir yaptırım gücü kazanmasınıifade eden hegemonya; eleştirel uluslararasıilişkiler kuramlarında ise maddi öğeleri dışında meşruiyet, kültür ve rızaya dayalıolarak bir devletin başatlığının öteki devletler tarafından kabul edilmesi olarak kavramsallaştırılmıştır. Ancak Soğuk Savaş’ın sona ermesi ve ABD’nin yeni düzende başat konumu nedeniyle küresel düzeyde hegemonik yarışın en azından öneminin azalmasına paralel olarak dünya politikasında bölgesel politikalar daha fazla yer bulmaya başlamıştır. Bu kapsamda bazıülkelerin bölgesel güç haline gelme çabalarının incelenmesinde hegemonya kavramının işlevsel olabileceği bir ortam doğmuştur. Bölgesel hegemonya girişimi olarak tanımlanabilecek yeni durumun en dikkat çekici örneklerinden biri Türkiye’dir. Son on yıllık dışpolitika adımlarıizlendiğinde Türkiye’nin bölgesel bir hegemonya kurma peşinde olduğu izlenimi doğmaktadır. Bu çerçevede bu çalışmada, ilk olarak uluslararasısistem ve dünya düzenini açıklamada ortaya konan teorilerden biri olan eleştirel teori çerçevesinde ‘‘hegemonya’’ ve ‘‘bölgesel hegemonya’’ kavramlarıirdelenmişve ardından bölgesel hegemonya bağlamında Türkiye’nin konumu tartışılmıştır. Sonuçta ise Türkiye tarafından atılan bazıadımların bölgesel hegemonya girişimi olarak değerlendirilebileceği, ancak bunun bağımlıniteliğe sahip olduğu kanısına varılmıştır

The concept of hegemony in international relations is generally debated on global scale. In realist theory the concept is deemed as the dominant power which has imposition capacity on other states depending on its material power. In critical international relations theory the concept is defined superiority of a state over the others depending on legitimacy, culture and consent in addition to material capacity through which other states tend to accept the dominant position of the hegemonic power. On the other hand following the end of the Cold War and strengthened hegemonic position of the United States hegemonic rivalry decreased on global scale. On the contrary regional politics started to expose more importance which invited the emergence of regional powers. The rise of regional politics and emergence of regional powers display that the concept of hegemony could be utilized in the analysis of the position of emerging regional powers. The useful concept to define new unit of analysis is ‘‘regional hegemony’’. One of the recent examples of regional hegemonic initiatives is the rise of Turkey. Trend of the Turkish foreign policy in the last decade following AK Party rule creates an image that the country is in search for establishing a regional hegemony. Within this framework in this paper firstly the concepts of ‘‘hegemony’’ and ‘‘regional hegemony’’ are analyzed within the boundaries of critical international relations theory. Secondly new position of Turkey is discussed with reference to regional hegemony. Main issue is whether Turkey is pursuing hegemonic policies within the region. Consequently it is concluded that some foreign policy initiatives of Turkey represent that Turkey is following hegemonic policies on regional scale. The paper is composed of two main parts. In the first part theoretical approaches to the concept of hegemony is analyzed. In Gramscian interpretation of critical theory the concept refers to the dominant position of a country in international politics. This dominance is not based solely on material capacity as it is got by the realist tradition. In addition to material power the superior position of a country is more importantly based on the consent of others through creation of common culture and common interest. Shared values add a legitimate face to the position of the hegemonic country thereby superiority is not sustained just by physical force rather by voluntary participation of others into the hegemonic system. The existence of hegemonic governance based on legitimacy and consent creates an atmosphere of peace and stability in international system. This frame of analysis does not include any presumption with regard to regional politics except that other countries join hegemonic governance by their consent. However unipolar international system after the end of the Cold War does not require any hegemonic rivalry as the position of the United States is not challenged. Instead of hegemonic rivalry on global scale the importance of regional politics dramatically increased. Therefore the concept of hegemony might be utilized also in the analysis of regional initiatives and in this kind of analysis the concept of ‘‘regional hegemony’’ has a central role. In the paper regional hegemony is classified in two kinds. One is ‘‘dependant regional hegemony’’ which refers to the existence of closer and cooperative relations between global hegemony and regional power. On this occasion Turkey represents a genuine example. Dependant regional hegemony acts as the representative of global hegemony on regional context to a great extent. The area for autonomous policies of the regional power is highly restricted. Despite the fact that dependency relation between global and regional hegemony tries to strengthen the policies of the global hegemony in short and medium terms, in the long run regional hegemony might try to tend to adopt more autonomous policies and to go out of the control of the global hegemony. The other is ‘‘autonomous regional hegemony’’ which refers to the existence of desperate policies of the regional power vis-à-vis the global hegemony. On this context global and regional hegemonic commitments are in competition with each other in regional context. The genuine example to autonomous regional hegemony is the position of Iran in the Middle East. In the paper autonomous regional hegemony is debated to the extent that it is relevant to the main issue of the paper that is the dependant regional hegemonic commitments of Turkey. In the second part of the paper foreign policy actions of Turkey that represent regional hegemonic initiatives are debated. They are classified under five topics. First is the ‘‘zero problem with neighbors’’ which tries to solve peacefully different kinds of