9th Annual All Azimuth Workshop: (Re)imagining Concepts
in Turkish Foreign Policy
The CFPPR is pleased to announce that it is organizing a workshop as part of its Annual All Azimuth Global IR Workshop series. The 9th installment of this series seeks to contextualize Turkish Foreign Policy (TFP) in the present international system by innovating new homegrown, as well as building on extant, analytical tools and theoretical concepts going forward in the analysis of TFP. It is difficult to overstate Turkey’s importance in current global affairs. On the one hand, it styles itself as an aspiring regional leader seeking to promote greater strategic autonomy, but it is also a country constrained by a conflict-ridden neighborhood in which great-power states continue to stake claims of dominance. The dynamics of the Russia-Ukraine War, the ongoing conflict in Gaza, and speculations about the future of US foreign policy are but a sample of difficulties Turkish diplomacy must contend with going forward. These are issues that require both theoretical and practical scrutiny. To wit, the workshop aims to address two fundamental issues. Our first inquiry relates directly to identifying forward-looking and emerging agendas in the study of Turkish Foreign Policy and looking for ways to build on emerging concepts and themes. Secondly, we want to inquire into what is different or unique about Turkish Foreign Policy today, if anything. This entails an examination of structural, ideational, agential, and directional aspects of Turkish Foreign Policy.
This workshop, which will take place in Ankara, on December 7, builds on a successful series of All Azimuth meetings and publications. Starting with our first workshop in 2013, these events have brought together scholars from around the world to discuss IR theorizing in the periphery, including structural factors impacting disciplinary hierarchies, disciplinary dialogue, and interaction in the context of “Global IR,” as well as research into IR pedagogy and practices. Our most recent workshop, in November 2023, co-organized with The Hollings Center and the Turkish Fulbright Commission, was centered on enduring questions and emergent discussions in American-Turkish relations, exploring theoretically and conceptually the intricacies of these bilateral relations at various levels of analysis. Essays from this workshop are set to be published in the upcoming winter 2024-2025 issue of All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace.
If you are interested in participating in this 9th annual All Azimuth workshop, we encourage you to submit the title and abstract of your proposed paper and author bio(s) by October 4 to the submission page. For a list of suggested questions and themes –though we encourage our participants to explore alternative topics– please see below.
PROPOSED PANELS BASED ON DISCUSSION THEMES/QUESTIONS
The main goal of this workshop is to identify past, existing, and emerging core themes and concepts that explain continuity and change in Turkish Foreign Policy studies and practice. From its application to the meaning-making efforts over it, current TFP is characterized by dispersal and thematic discoordination, if not chaos. Considering several gaps in our understanding, this workshop is intended to serve as an opportunity to return to basics and discuss what TFP has evolved into, what has defined its core structures and agencies, and how it is transforming. In this endeavor, the focus of this workshop is also extended to include the international historical sociology of the social and political structures underpinning foreign policy-making processes. As these structures raise broader questions about state-society cohesiveness and national consolidation projects, the workshop will consider the domestic perspectives in tandem with the international.
Panel I – Considering Continuity in Turkish Foreign Policy: Identifying Extant Core Themes and Concepts
The goal of this panel is to reimagine the existing key themes offered to us while explaining continuity in TFP. Among these themes are (1) the contested ideological currents or doctrinal influences behind TFP, such as Ataturkism, Westernism, Muslim Brotherhood, and Eurasianism; (2) the power analysis and geopolitical considerations that focus on Turkey following a strategic culture, balancing between East and West, and being a Middle power, model country, ‘diffuser’ or ‘receiver’ of democratic norms; and (3) the debates over state identity, formation and statecraft revolving around principles and agents, leadership roles, the deep state and public state, and high politics and low politics.
- Are any of these concepts worth maintaining/resuscitating/revising to help make sense of Turkey’s current foreign policy?
- Have the institutions of traditional TFP been overhauled/changed/replaced? If so, in what ways?
- How do domestic disputes receive or affect the decisions, priorities, and implementation of foreign policy?
- To what extent do historical alliances and established relationships form path-dependent concepts in the evolution and continuity of TFP?
- In what ways do Turkey’s long-standing economic interests create enduring patterns that shape and sustain its foreign policy priorities and strategies over time?
Panel II – Studying Change in Turkish Foreign Policy: Identifying New Core Themes and Concepts
The goal of this panel is to vocalize emergent discussions and forward-looking concepts, themes and research agendas in the study of Turkish Foreign Policy. An additional focus will be on the examination of conceptual poverty within Turkish Foreign Policy studies, addressing how original and innovative concepts affect the study and practice of TFP. The panel aims to explore if and why practitioners tend to put forward relatively novel concepts in the field of TFP, examining the factors that contribute to the generation of innovative ideas and approaches in this area.
- What is the state of the art in the study of TFP; how does new scholarship approach and/or make sense of past TFP and recent changes in it, if any?
- What novel or forward-looking concepts and themes can we identify in Turkish Foreign Policy?
- Have there been actual normative, identitarian, or ideational shifts in TFP, or have any changes been only pragmatic?
- Has there been a directional change in Turkish Foreign Policy in terms of east-west/north-south/imperialist-anti-imperialist sentiments?
- Has there been a fundamental change in the main actors of TFP?
- To what extent do non-state actors, such as political parties, epistemic communities, and NGOs, influence Turkish Foreign Policy outside governmental channels?
Roundtable Discussion
Comparing and contrasting themes—old and new. This session will include a thematic competition for understanding TFP for today and tomorrow.
SCHEDULE
October 4 – Abstract submission deadline (submit via our submission page)
October 11 – Panel announcements
October 28 – Final program release
November 22 – Draft paper submission
December 7 – Workshop to be held at Bilkent University
