Call for Papers: A Transnational Account of Turkish Foreign Policy

In the past few decades, the non-state actors' presence and influence in world politics have been acknowledged. However, there seems to be a lack of engagement with transnational dynamics in the area of foreign policy studies. State-centric accounts that still seem to have a dominant position in analyses of interstate relations are not the only way in which foreign policy should be approached. In the specific case of Turkey, the prevailing narratives seem to prioritize relations between foreign ministries, actions involving political decision-makers, or processes of state-to-state negotiations. In this workshop, we aim to go beyond such works by making use of the transnational turn in order to expand our attention to non-state actors' role in Turkish foreign policy.

This means, our interest lies in the role of transnational actors in foreign policy processes. For instance, what is the impact of NGOs dealing with the current migrant crisis on current Turkish foreign policy decisions? Or, alternatively, to what extent can the Turkish diaspora be regarded as a strategic asset for Turkey? These are rather up-to-date questions.  However, it is important to reconsider transnational dynamics as those that are not necessarily limited to today’s global cross-national phenomena. We can and also should historicize the transnational processes. That would include looking into various cases in which Turkish foreign policy was influenced by non-state actors throughout the Republican era. The workshop aims to highlight diverse ways in which Turkish foreign policy is shaped by a great number of non-state actors. At the same time, a major goal is to show how Turkey's foreign policy choices have itself shaped the roles and actions of different non-state actors.  

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following transnational actors' and their role in Turkish foreign policy:

• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
• Multi-national corporations (MNCs)
• Diaspora and migrant communities
• (National, international, transnational) public opinions & Global media
• International financial institutions
• Lobbies & Advocacy networks
• Criminal groups

The workshop aims to bring together papers that present both thematically and historically formulated accounts of Turkish foreign policy based on a transnational framework. We are happy to announce that the main aim of this workshop is to serve as a basis of a prospective edited volume that would be published by a prestigious academic/university press.

The date for the workshop is May 24, 2017. It will be held in English. The workshop will take place at the Turkish-German University in Istanbul, a research university founded by a bilateral state treaty between Turkey and Federal Republic of Germany.

The deadline for abstract submission is January 30, 2017. These should be limited to 300 words, and sent to both Dr. Hazal Papuççular (papuccularh@ceu.edu) and Dr. Deniz Kuru (kuru@tau.edu.tr). The authors of the accepted papers will be notified by February 10, 2017. The first drafts to be discussed in the workshop should be sent by May 7 to the conveners.

German scholars with accepted papers can possibly be supported. For further details, please contact Dr. Deniz Kuru.