Bu çalışma akademi, medya ve karar alma bağlamlarında sıklıkla karşılaşılan geleneksel jeopolitik... more Bu çalışma akademi, medya ve karar alma bağlamlarında sıklıkla karşılaşılan geleneksel jeopolitik varsayımları sorunsallaştıran “eleştirel jeopolitik” yaklaşımını incelemektedir. Eleştirel jeopolitik, her ne kadar Siyasi Coğrafya disiplininin bir alt kolu olarak ortaya çıkmış olsa da odaklandığı konular, kavramsal tartışmaları ve kuramsal argümanları göz önüne alındığında Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplini ile oldukça önemli ortak noktalar paylaşan bir yaklaşımdır. Dolayısıyla, eleştirel jeopolitiği, Uluslararası İlişkiler’de 1980’li yılların sonu, 1990’lı yılların başında oluşmaya başlayan diğer eleştirel yaklaşımların bir parçası olarak ele alıp değerlendirmek mümkündür. Bu çalışma, eleştirel jeopolitik yazınına dair bir literatür taraması sunmayı ve böylelikle bu yazının temellerini ortaya koymayı hedeflemektedir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda makale öncelikle 19. Yüzyıl itibariyle ortaya çıkan klasik jeopolitiğin muhtevasını tartışmakta ve bu yaklaşımın etkilerinin günümüze kadar hangi biçimlerde tezahür ettiğine bakmaktadır. Bu bölüm özellikle 1970’li yıllardan başlayarak ortaya çıkan ve literatürde “jeopolitik yeniden canlanma” ile ilişkilendirilen neoklasik jeopolitik düşüncenin ana hatlarına ve yaygınlaşmasına eğilmiştir. Makale daha sonra eleştirel jeopolitiğin bu klasik ve neoklasik yaklaşımlara getirdiği eleştirileri “siyasetin coğrafyası” ve “coğrafyanın siyaseti” farkına atıfla ele almaktadır. Bu bölümde ayrıca eleştirel jeopolitiğin ortaya çıkışına ve temel argümanlarına da odaklanılmıştır. Takip eden bölümde eleştirel jeopolitiğin geleneksel Uluslararası İlişkiler kuramlarına getirdiği eleştiriler, eleştirel jeopolitik yazınının önemli isimlerinden biri olan John Agnew’ın “teritoryal tuzak” argümanı baz alınarak incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın son bölümünde ise eleştirel jeopolitik ve postyapısalcılık, Marksizm, feminizm ve postkolonyalizm gibi farklı eleştirel yaklaşımların arasındaki kesişim noktaları mercek altına alınmıştır. Sonuç olarak çalışma, literatürde mevcut olan tüm bu tartışmalar ve içinde bulunduğumuz bağlam göz önünde bulundurularak, mekânsallık, söylem ve iktidar ilişkilerini merkezine alan eleştirel jeopolitiğe odaklanmanın süregiden gerekliliğini vurgulamaktadır.
This study examines the “critical geopolitics” approach which challenges the traditional geopolitical assumptions commonly referenced in academia, media, and decision-making contexts. While critical geopolitics emerged as a sub-field of Political Geography discipline, it shares significant commonalities with the discipline of International Relations in terms of its subject matters, conceptual discussions, and theoretical arguments. Consequently, one can view critical geopolitics as a notable part of critical approaches that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s within International Relations. This study aims to provide a literature review on, and hence to reveal the main arguments of, critical geopolitics literature. To fulfill this objective, the article first discusses the content of classical geopolitics which came into prominence during the 19th century and examines how the effects of this perspective have manifested themselves up to the present day. This section particularly delves into the contours and diffusion of neoclassical geopolitical thought, a phenomenon that gained prominence in the 1970s and is characterized as a “geopolitical revival” in the literature. The article then addresses the criticisms brought by critical geopolitics to these classical/neoclassical approaches with reference to the difference between “geography of politics” and “politics of geography.” This section also focuses on the emergence and the main arguments of critical geopolitics. Subsequently, the criticisms that critical geopolitics levies against traditional International Relations theories are explored through “territorial trap” argument of John Agnew, who is one of the most prominent figures in critical geopolitics literature. The last section of the study focuses on the intersection between critical geopolitics and other critical approaches, including poststructuralism, Marxism, feminism, and postcolonialism. Given all those discussions available in the literature and the context we are going through, the study concludes by stressing the ongoing need for an engagement with critical geopolitics, particularly concerning its focus on spatiality, discourse, and power relations.
Bu makalenin gelişimindeki değerli katkıları için Hakan Sipahioğlu'na, Neslihan Dikmen-Alsancak'a... more Bu makalenin gelişimindeki değerli katkıları için Hakan Sipahioğlu'na, Neslihan Dikmen-Alsancak'a ve Uluslararası İlişkiler dergisi hakemlerine teşekkür ederim.
In this article, we examine the Hungarian and Turkish responses to the EU’s handling of the 2015 ... more In this article, we examine the Hungarian and Turkish responses to the EU’s handling of the 2015 refugee “crisis” through a postcolonial feminist IR framework. Drawing on hypermasculinity, we argue that both countries utilise migration to overcome their postcolonial and masculine anxieties by confronting their positions within the international hierarchies. Our examination of policy statements and speeches by Viktor Orbán and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan between 2015 and 2016 reveals three masculinised responses. First, both leaders portray themselves as acting out of paternal authority, while painting the EU as weak or inhumane. Second, they depict the EU as incompetent and their countries as competent providers of security. Third, they present themselves as protectors of European values, and the EU as in need of protection. These rhetorics suggest that both leaders used the “crisis” to challenge the current international hierarchy. Despite this, we argue that they are only concerned with their countries’ rankings within the hierarchy, not the system itself. Our postcolonial feminist reading of the “crisis” reveals that these masculinised framings are in fact counterproductive and only serve to confirm both Hungary and Turkey’s positions at the bottom of the international hierarchies, and their subordination to the EU as the EU’s others.
In this article, we examine the Hungarian and Turkish responses to the EU’s handling of the 2015 ... more In this article, we examine the Hungarian and Turkish responses to the EU’s handling of the 2015 refugee “crisis” through a postcolonial feminist IR framework. Drawing on hypermasculinity, we argue that both countries utilise migration to overcome their postcolonial and masculine anxieties by confronting their positions within the international hierarchies. Our examination of policy statements and speeches by Viktor Orbán and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan between 2015 and 2016 reveals three masculinised responses. First, both leaders portray themselves as acting out of paternal authority, while painting the EU as weak or inhumane. Second, they depict the EU as incompetent and their countries as competent providers of security. Third, they present themselves as protectors of European values, and the EU as in need of protection. These rhetorics suggest that both leaders used the “crisis” to challenge the current international hierarchy. Despite this, we argue that they are only concerned with their countries’ rankings within the hierarchy, not the system itself. Our postcolonial feminist reading of the “crisis” reveals that these masculinised framings are in fact counterproductive and only serve to confirm both Hungary and Turkey’s positions at the bottom of the international hierarchies, and their subordination to the EU as the EU’s others.
Bu makalenin gelişimindeki değerli katkıları için Hakan Sipahioğlu'na, Neslihan Dikmen-Alsancak'a... more Bu makalenin gelişimindeki değerli katkıları için Hakan Sipahioğlu'na, Neslihan Dikmen-Alsancak'a ve Uluslararası İlişkiler dergisi hakemlerine teşekkür ederim.
Both in the conventional accounts of International Relations discipline, as well as in foreign po... more Both in the conventional accounts of International Relations discipline, as well as in foreign policies of various actors, the Global South has predominantly been defined with reference to a “zone of lack” which is “in need of aid and tutelage.” In recent decades, postcolonial IR approaches have problematized this representation through interrogating the reasons for and processes of its construction. While doing this, however, the postcolonial IR literature mainly focuses on the Global North actors’ discourses and practices on the Global South, and how non-core actors view their counterparts remains underexamined. Based on this gap in the literature, this study investigates whether and how Turkey, as a non-core actor in world politics, challenges or contributes to predominant representations of the Global South. As such, the study seeks to answer the question of “how do the politicians in Turkey understand the place of the Global South in world politics?” The study is structured around three sections. The first section looks at previous works done about Turkish foreign policy in the Global South. The second section presents our theoretical framework, and the selected research method. The third section analyses the discourses produced in the 2000s by political elites from both the ruling as well as the opposition political parties in Turkey about the Global South. The study concludes with discussing the implications of our findings.
International relations (IR) scholarship rests on a conception of 'the international' based on th... more International relations (IR) scholarship rests on a conception of 'the international' based on the experiences of core actors. A burgeoning literature has asked what IR would look like if non-core actors' conceptions of 'the international' were also considered. This article analyzes conceptions of 'the international' in Turkey as an example of a non-core context. In doing this, the article develops and offers a new analytical framework which breaks down the components of conceptions of 'the international' into three questions: 'what', 'who', and 'where' of world politicsnamely, the main dynamics of world politics, the main actors of world politics, and the location where world politics takes place. I utilize this framework to empirically analyze the election manifestos and party programs of the political parties in Turkey, and tease out their conceptions of 'the international.' The article concludes by considering the implications of these findings for IR scholarship in general.
Uluslararası İlişkiler (International Relations), 2021
Limitations pertaining to the discipline of International Relations (IR) in its approach to the n... more Limitations pertaining to the discipline of International Relations (IR) in its approach to the non-core parts of the world have been debated over the last several decades. This paper looks at the contributions of two significant bodies of scholarship, namely Third World IR and postcolonial IR, to this conversation and questions whether there have been any differences regarding how ‘the international’ is understood in these two bodies of scholarship. Such an analysis is significant, argues the paper, because their conceptions of ‘the international’ inform how the limitations of IR and the place of the non-core in world politics can be understood. To this end, the paper looks at questions that constitute conceptions of ‘the international,’ namely, the what, who, and where of world politics. We conclude by enumerating the commonalities and differences between these two bodies of scholarship and discussing the implications of our findings for studying non-core and world politics. Keywords: Third World, Global South, Non-Core; International, Critical IR Approaches
Uluslararası İlişkiler (International Relations), 2020
Soğuk Savaş’ın bitişinden itibaren eleştirel güvenlik yaklaşımlarının güvenlik çalışmalarına önem... more Soğuk Savaş’ın bitişinden itibaren eleştirel güvenlik yaklaşımlarının güvenlik çalışmalarına önemli etkileri olmuştur. Göç ve güvenlik arasındaki ilişki bu literatürdeki en önemli konulardan birisidir. Bu makale eleştirel güvenlik çalışmalarındaki yaklaşımlarından biri olan Aberystwyth ekolünün göç-güvenlik ilişkisini anlamak için sunacağı özgün katkıları tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu katkılar, makalede Türkiye’deki Suriyeli mülteciler örneği üzerinden incelenmiştir. Makale ayrıca Aberystwyth ekolüne göre göç-güvenlik bağlantısı bağlamında literatürde daha çok ele alınan Kopenhag ve Paris ekollerinin bu bağlantıya nasıl yaklaştığını irdelemektedir. Makalede bu ekollerin literatüre sundukları farklı kuramsal ve ampirik katkılar, onların kısıtları ve bu kısıtların ötesine Aberystwyth ekolünün nasıl geçtiği de ele alınmaktadır.
Following the end of the Cold War, critical security approaches have made significant inroads into the security studies scholarship. The relationship between migration and security has been one of the most significant issues in this literature. This article aims to discuss the novel contributions of one of the approaches in critical security studies, namely Aberystwyth school, in understanding the migration-security nexus. These contributions are examined with reference to the example of Syrian refugees in Turkey. The article also scrutinizes Copenhagen and Paris schools, which have been employed more than the Aberystwyth school concerning the migration-security nexus. It elaborates on the distinct theoretical and empirical contributions of these schools, their limitations, and how Aberystwyth school goes beyond these limitations.
International relations (IR) scholarship rests on a conception of ‘the international’ based on th... more International relations (IR) scholarship rests on a conception of ‘the international’ based on the experiences of core actors. A burgeoning literature has asked what IR would look like if non-core actors’ conceptions of ‘the international’ were also considered. This article analyzes conceptions of ‘the international’ in Turkey as an example of a non-core context. In doing this, the article develops and offers a new analytical framework which breaks down the components of conceptions of ‘the international’ into three questions: ‘what’, ‘who’, and ‘where’ of world politics – namely, the main dynamics of world politics, the main actors of world politics, and the location where world politics takes place. I utilize this framework to empirically analyze the election manifestos and party programs of the political parties in Turkey, and tease out their conceptions of ‘the international.’ The article concludes by considering the implications of these findings for IR scholarship in general.
Since the late 1990s, postcolonial feminist approaches have made significant inroads into the dis... more Since the late 1990s, postcolonial feminist approaches have made significant inroads into the discipline of International Relations (IR). This paper is interested in revealing how this body of scholarship can enhance our understanding of the continuities and transformations in world politics and, relatedly, how the discipline of IR should respond to them. The paper argues that one of the ways through which these dynamics can be made sense of is to examine hierarchies and exclusions in world politics and how subordinated actors challenge them. As such, by centralizing racial, gendered, and class-based relations of domination and their contestation in their analysis, postcolonial feminist IR can offer significant insights into understanding the continuities and changes in world politics. Based on this argument, the paper first unpacks the beginnings of postcolonial feminist thinking. Then, it looks at the emergence of postcolonial feminism in IR and discusses the novel insights provided by this body of scholarship to the discipline through revealing how it problematizes the mainstream and critical IR approaches. To further elaborate on the postcolonial feminist IR’s contributions to the study of world politics, then, the paper looks at how it studies international political economy (IPE). The paper concludes by discussing the implications of postcolonial feminist analysis both for the IR discipline as well as for world politics.
Uluslararası İlişkiler (Uİ) disiplininde postkolonyal yaklaşımlar 1990’larda ortaya çıkmıştır. Di... more Uluslararası İlişkiler (Uİ) disiplininde postkolonyal yaklaşımlar 1990’larda ortaya çıkmıştır. Disipline postkolonyal bakış ise, farklı eleştirel Uİ yaklaşımları ile etkileşim içinde postkolonyal teoriyi ve eleştirisini Uİ kuramlarına ve güvenlik çalışmalarına getiren çalışmalar tarafından şekillenmiştir. Bu çalışmalar, gerek uluslararası ilişkiler gerekse güvenlik söz konusu olduğunda, Batı-dışı bağlamlardaki deneyimleri anlamanın öneminin altını çizmiştir. Disiplindeki Avrupa-merkezci yaklaşımların bu deneyimleri ve onlarla bağlantılı olarak ortaya çıkan güvenlik ilişkilerini anlamadaki kısıtlarına işaret eden bu literatür, aynı zamanda bu kısıtların ötesine nasıl geçilebileceğini tartışmıştır. Bu anlamda kimi yazarlar literatürdeki kavram ve kategorilerin Batı-dışı bağlamlara uygunluğunu sorgulamış ve yaygın güvenlik anlayışlarının sorunsallaştırılmasına katkıda bulunmuşlardır. Kimileri ise Batı-dışı güvenliksizlik deneyimlerinin, Batı ve Batı-dışının karşılıklı inşa ilişkisi analiziyle çalışılması gerektiğini vurgularken, “güvenlik” ve “uluslararası” kavramları arasındaki ilişkiye işaret etmişlerdir. Bu kuramsal tartışmaya Türkiye örneği üzerinden de çeşitli katkılar sağlanarak hem literatürde yeni soruların sorulması mümkün kılınmış, hem de yeni kavram ve anlayışların geliştirilmesi sağlanmıştır. Bu çalışma bir yandan Uİ’deki ve güvenlik çalışmalarındaki Avrupa-merkezcilik tartışmasının çerçevesini ele alırken, diğer yandan da bu tartışmaya Türkiye örneğini üzerinden katkı sunan akademisyenlerin eserlerini incelemeyi amaçlamıştır.
Critical Readings of Turkey’s Foreign Policy, 2022
Both in the conventional accounts of International Relations discipline, as well as in foreign po... more Both in the conventional accounts of International Relations discipline, as well as in foreign policies of various actors, the Global South has predominantly been defined with reference to a “zone of lack” which is “in need of aid and tutelage.” In recent decades, postcolonial IR approaches have problematized this representation through interrogating the reasons for and processes of its construction. While doing this, however, the postcolonial IR literature mainly focuses on the Global North actors’ discourses and practices on the Global South, and how non-core actors view their counterparts remains underexamined. Based on this gap in the literature, this study investigates whether and how Turkey, as a non-core actor in world politics, challenges or contributes to predominant representations of the Global South. As such, the study seeks to answer the question of “how do the politicians in Turkey understand the place of the Global South in world politics?” The study is structured around three sections. The first section looks at previous works done about Turkish foreign policy in the Global South. The second section presents our theoretical framework, and the selected research method. The third section analyses the discourses produced in the 2000s by political elites from both the ruling as well as the opposition political parties in Turkey about the Global South. The study concludes with discussing the implications of our findings.
1980’li yılların sonlarında ortaya çıktığı andan itibaren feminist uluslararası ilişkiler kuramla... more 1980’li yılların sonlarında ortaya çıktığı andan itibaren feminist uluslararası ilişkiler kuramları için güvenlik konusu başat bir öneme sahip olmuştur. İlerleyen yıllarda feminist güvenlik çalışmaları ismiyle anılmaya başlayan ve eleştirel güvenlik çalışmalarının bir parçası olan bu kuramsal perspektifler güvenliğe toplumsal cinsiyet merceğinden bakmayı önermektedir. Çünkü feministlere göre toplumsal birer inşa olan feminenlik ve maskülenlik belirli beklentilere, davranış kalıplarına ve varsayımlara yaslanmakta ve bütün bunlar hem kuramsal tartışmaları hem de güvenlik pratiklerini şekillendirmektedir. Evrensellik iddiasındaki geleneksel güvenlik yaklaşımlarını sorunsallaştıran feministler, bu yaklaşımların belirli erkekler tarafından, belirli maskülen inşaları önceleyecek şekilde oluşturulduğunu ifade ederler. Bu perspektifleri problemleştiren feministlere göre güvenliğin tanımı askeri güvenliğin ötesine geçerek ev içi şiddet, fakirlik, ekolojik problemler gibi konuları içerek şekilde genişletilmelidir. Çünkü farklı seviyelerde gerçekleşen bu güvensizlikler birbirleriyle ilişkilidir. Yine feministler güvenliğin referans nesnesinin (“kimin güvenliği” sorusunun cevabının) devletler değil, bireyler ve topluluklar olduğunu vurgulamışlardır. Bu anlamda feminist güvenlik çalışmaları özellikle toplumsal cinsiyet hiyerarşilerinde altta konumlanan birey ve grupların yaşadıkları şiddet ve güvensizliklere odaklanmışlardır. Feministler aynı zamanda devletlerin vatandaşlarını uluslararası arenadan gelen “tehlikelere” karşı koruyan yegâne aktör olduğuna dair geleneksel varsayıma karşı çıkmış ve devletlerin bazen doğrudan bazense dolaylı olarak bireyleri ve grupları daha da güvensiz kıldıklarını dile getirmişlerdir.
Critical Approaches toInternational Relations Philosophical Foundations and Current Debates, 2021
This chapter aims to introduce the postcolonial approaches in the discipline of International Rel... more This chapter aims to introduce the postcolonial approaches in the discipline of International Relations (IR). Emerged in the 1990s as a part of the critical strand of thought, postcolonial IR approaches are considered as “the fastest growing areas of research in IR” (Sabaratnam, 2020, p. 161; Rutazibwa and Shilliam, 2018, p. 9).
Kuramsal Perspektiften Temel Uluslararası İlişkiler Kavramları (Central IR Concepts from a Theoretical Perspective), 2021
‘Uluslararası’ kavramının Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplinine hem adını vermesi hem de disiplinin ... more ‘Uluslararası’ kavramının Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplinine hem adını vermesi hem de disiplinin çerçevesini şekillendirmesi göz önüne alındığında bu alanın ana nosyonu olduğunu söylemek mümkündür. Aynı zamanda Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplininde yapılan tüm çalışmalar da belirli bir uluslararası anlayışı üzerinden hareket etmektedir. Fakat kavramın disiplindeki bu merkeziliğine rağmen literatürde farklı ‘uluslararası’ anlayışları nadiren açık bir şekilde tartışılmakta, ‘uluslararası nedir’ sorusunu cevaplamaya yönelik kavramsal sorgulamalar yazında yeteri kadar yer bulmamaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı farklı Uluslararası İlişkiler kuramlarındaki ‘uluslararası’ anlayışlarını irdelemektir.
Bu çalışma akademi, medya ve karar alma bağlamlarında sıklıkla karşılaşılan geleneksel jeopolitik... more Bu çalışma akademi, medya ve karar alma bağlamlarında sıklıkla karşılaşılan geleneksel jeopolitik varsayımları sorunsallaştıran “eleştirel jeopolitik” yaklaşımını incelemektedir. Eleştirel jeopolitik, her ne kadar Siyasi Coğrafya disiplininin bir alt kolu olarak ortaya çıkmış olsa da odaklandığı konular, kavramsal tartışmaları ve kuramsal argümanları göz önüne alındığında Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplini ile oldukça önemli ortak noktalar paylaşan bir yaklaşımdır. Dolayısıyla, eleştirel jeopolitiği, Uluslararası İlişkiler’de 1980’li yılların sonu, 1990’lı yılların başında oluşmaya başlayan diğer eleştirel yaklaşımların bir parçası olarak ele alıp değerlendirmek mümkündür. Bu çalışma, eleştirel jeopolitik yazınına dair bir literatür taraması sunmayı ve böylelikle bu yazının temellerini ortaya koymayı hedeflemektedir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda makale öncelikle 19. Yüzyıl itibariyle ortaya çıkan klasik jeopolitiğin muhtevasını tartışmakta ve bu yaklaşımın etkilerinin günümüze kadar hangi biçimlerde tezahür ettiğine bakmaktadır. Bu bölüm özellikle 1970’li yıllardan başlayarak ortaya çıkan ve literatürde “jeopolitik yeniden canlanma” ile ilişkilendirilen neoklasik jeopolitik düşüncenin ana hatlarına ve yaygınlaşmasına eğilmiştir. Makale daha sonra eleştirel jeopolitiğin bu klasik ve neoklasik yaklaşımlara getirdiği eleştirileri “siyasetin coğrafyası” ve “coğrafyanın siyaseti” farkına atıfla ele almaktadır. Bu bölümde ayrıca eleştirel jeopolitiğin ortaya çıkışına ve temel argümanlarına da odaklanılmıştır. Takip eden bölümde eleştirel jeopolitiğin geleneksel Uluslararası İlişkiler kuramlarına getirdiği eleştiriler, eleştirel jeopolitik yazınının önemli isimlerinden biri olan John Agnew’ın “teritoryal tuzak” argümanı baz alınarak incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın son bölümünde ise eleştirel jeopolitik ve postyapısalcılık, Marksizm, feminizm ve postkolonyalizm gibi farklı eleştirel yaklaşımların arasındaki kesişim noktaları mercek altına alınmıştır. Sonuç olarak çalışma, literatürde mevcut olan tüm bu tartışmalar ve içinde bulunduğumuz bağlam göz önünde bulundurularak, mekânsallık, söylem ve iktidar ilişkilerini merkezine alan eleştirel jeopolitiğe odaklanmanın süregiden gerekliliğini vurgulamaktadır.
This study examines the “critical geopolitics” approach which challenges the traditional geopolitical assumptions commonly referenced in academia, media, and decision-making contexts. While critical geopolitics emerged as a sub-field of Political Geography discipline, it shares significant commonalities with the discipline of International Relations in terms of its subject matters, conceptual discussions, and theoretical arguments. Consequently, one can view critical geopolitics as a notable part of critical approaches that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s within International Relations. This study aims to provide a literature review on, and hence to reveal the main arguments of, critical geopolitics literature. To fulfill this objective, the article first discusses the content of classical geopolitics which came into prominence during the 19th century and examines how the effects of this perspective have manifested themselves up to the present day. This section particularly delves into the contours and diffusion of neoclassical geopolitical thought, a phenomenon that gained prominence in the 1970s and is characterized as a “geopolitical revival” in the literature. The article then addresses the criticisms brought by critical geopolitics to these classical/neoclassical approaches with reference to the difference between “geography of politics” and “politics of geography.” This section also focuses on the emergence and the main arguments of critical geopolitics. Subsequently, the criticisms that critical geopolitics levies against traditional International Relations theories are explored through “territorial trap” argument of John Agnew, who is one of the most prominent figures in critical geopolitics literature. The last section of the study focuses on the intersection between critical geopolitics and other critical approaches, including poststructuralism, Marxism, feminism, and postcolonialism. Given all those discussions available in the literature and the context we are going through, the study concludes by stressing the ongoing need for an engagement with critical geopolitics, particularly concerning its focus on spatiality, discourse, and power relations.
Bu makalenin gelişimindeki değerli katkıları için Hakan Sipahioğlu'na, Neslihan Dikmen-Alsancak'a... more Bu makalenin gelişimindeki değerli katkıları için Hakan Sipahioğlu'na, Neslihan Dikmen-Alsancak'a ve Uluslararası İlişkiler dergisi hakemlerine teşekkür ederim.
In this article, we examine the Hungarian and Turkish responses to the EU’s handling of the 2015 ... more In this article, we examine the Hungarian and Turkish responses to the EU’s handling of the 2015 refugee “crisis” through a postcolonial feminist IR framework. Drawing on hypermasculinity, we argue that both countries utilise migration to overcome their postcolonial and masculine anxieties by confronting their positions within the international hierarchies. Our examination of policy statements and speeches by Viktor Orbán and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan between 2015 and 2016 reveals three masculinised responses. First, both leaders portray themselves as acting out of paternal authority, while painting the EU as weak or inhumane. Second, they depict the EU as incompetent and their countries as competent providers of security. Third, they present themselves as protectors of European values, and the EU as in need of protection. These rhetorics suggest that both leaders used the “crisis” to challenge the current international hierarchy. Despite this, we argue that they are only concerned with their countries’ rankings within the hierarchy, not the system itself. Our postcolonial feminist reading of the “crisis” reveals that these masculinised framings are in fact counterproductive and only serve to confirm both Hungary and Turkey’s positions at the bottom of the international hierarchies, and their subordination to the EU as the EU’s others.
In this article, we examine the Hungarian and Turkish responses to the EU’s handling of the 2015 ... more In this article, we examine the Hungarian and Turkish responses to the EU’s handling of the 2015 refugee “crisis” through a postcolonial feminist IR framework. Drawing on hypermasculinity, we argue that both countries utilise migration to overcome their postcolonial and masculine anxieties by confronting their positions within the international hierarchies. Our examination of policy statements and speeches by Viktor Orbán and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan between 2015 and 2016 reveals three masculinised responses. First, both leaders portray themselves as acting out of paternal authority, while painting the EU as weak or inhumane. Second, they depict the EU as incompetent and their countries as competent providers of security. Third, they present themselves as protectors of European values, and the EU as in need of protection. These rhetorics suggest that both leaders used the “crisis” to challenge the current international hierarchy. Despite this, we argue that they are only concerned with their countries’ rankings within the hierarchy, not the system itself. Our postcolonial feminist reading of the “crisis” reveals that these masculinised framings are in fact counterproductive and only serve to confirm both Hungary and Turkey’s positions at the bottom of the international hierarchies, and their subordination to the EU as the EU’s others.
Bu makalenin gelişimindeki değerli katkıları için Hakan Sipahioğlu'na, Neslihan Dikmen-Alsancak'a... more Bu makalenin gelişimindeki değerli katkıları için Hakan Sipahioğlu'na, Neslihan Dikmen-Alsancak'a ve Uluslararası İlişkiler dergisi hakemlerine teşekkür ederim.
Both in the conventional accounts of International Relations discipline, as well as in foreign po... more Both in the conventional accounts of International Relations discipline, as well as in foreign policies of various actors, the Global South has predominantly been defined with reference to a “zone of lack” which is “in need of aid and tutelage.” In recent decades, postcolonial IR approaches have problematized this representation through interrogating the reasons for and processes of its construction. While doing this, however, the postcolonial IR literature mainly focuses on the Global North actors’ discourses and practices on the Global South, and how non-core actors view their counterparts remains underexamined. Based on this gap in the literature, this study investigates whether and how Turkey, as a non-core actor in world politics, challenges or contributes to predominant representations of the Global South. As such, the study seeks to answer the question of “how do the politicians in Turkey understand the place of the Global South in world politics?” The study is structured around three sections. The first section looks at previous works done about Turkish foreign policy in the Global South. The second section presents our theoretical framework, and the selected research method. The third section analyses the discourses produced in the 2000s by political elites from both the ruling as well as the opposition political parties in Turkey about the Global South. The study concludes with discussing the implications of our findings.
International relations (IR) scholarship rests on a conception of 'the international' based on th... more International relations (IR) scholarship rests on a conception of 'the international' based on the experiences of core actors. A burgeoning literature has asked what IR would look like if non-core actors' conceptions of 'the international' were also considered. This article analyzes conceptions of 'the international' in Turkey as an example of a non-core context. In doing this, the article develops and offers a new analytical framework which breaks down the components of conceptions of 'the international' into three questions: 'what', 'who', and 'where' of world politicsnamely, the main dynamics of world politics, the main actors of world politics, and the location where world politics takes place. I utilize this framework to empirically analyze the election manifestos and party programs of the political parties in Turkey, and tease out their conceptions of 'the international.' The article concludes by considering the implications of these findings for IR scholarship in general.
Uluslararası İlişkiler (International Relations), 2021
Limitations pertaining to the discipline of International Relations (IR) in its approach to the n... more Limitations pertaining to the discipline of International Relations (IR) in its approach to the non-core parts of the world have been debated over the last several decades. This paper looks at the contributions of two significant bodies of scholarship, namely Third World IR and postcolonial IR, to this conversation and questions whether there have been any differences regarding how ‘the international’ is understood in these two bodies of scholarship. Such an analysis is significant, argues the paper, because their conceptions of ‘the international’ inform how the limitations of IR and the place of the non-core in world politics can be understood. To this end, the paper looks at questions that constitute conceptions of ‘the international,’ namely, the what, who, and where of world politics. We conclude by enumerating the commonalities and differences between these two bodies of scholarship and discussing the implications of our findings for studying non-core and world politics. Keywords: Third World, Global South, Non-Core; International, Critical IR Approaches
Uluslararası İlişkiler (International Relations), 2020
Soğuk Savaş’ın bitişinden itibaren eleştirel güvenlik yaklaşımlarının güvenlik çalışmalarına önem... more Soğuk Savaş’ın bitişinden itibaren eleştirel güvenlik yaklaşımlarının güvenlik çalışmalarına önemli etkileri olmuştur. Göç ve güvenlik arasındaki ilişki bu literatürdeki en önemli konulardan birisidir. Bu makale eleştirel güvenlik çalışmalarındaki yaklaşımlarından biri olan Aberystwyth ekolünün göç-güvenlik ilişkisini anlamak için sunacağı özgün katkıları tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu katkılar, makalede Türkiye’deki Suriyeli mülteciler örneği üzerinden incelenmiştir. Makale ayrıca Aberystwyth ekolüne göre göç-güvenlik bağlantısı bağlamında literatürde daha çok ele alınan Kopenhag ve Paris ekollerinin bu bağlantıya nasıl yaklaştığını irdelemektedir. Makalede bu ekollerin literatüre sundukları farklı kuramsal ve ampirik katkılar, onların kısıtları ve bu kısıtların ötesine Aberystwyth ekolünün nasıl geçtiği de ele alınmaktadır.
Following the end of the Cold War, critical security approaches have made significant inroads into the security studies scholarship. The relationship between migration and security has been one of the most significant issues in this literature. This article aims to discuss the novel contributions of one of the approaches in critical security studies, namely Aberystwyth school, in understanding the migration-security nexus. These contributions are examined with reference to the example of Syrian refugees in Turkey. The article also scrutinizes Copenhagen and Paris schools, which have been employed more than the Aberystwyth school concerning the migration-security nexus. It elaborates on the distinct theoretical and empirical contributions of these schools, their limitations, and how Aberystwyth school goes beyond these limitations.
International relations (IR) scholarship rests on a conception of ‘the international’ based on th... more International relations (IR) scholarship rests on a conception of ‘the international’ based on the experiences of core actors. A burgeoning literature has asked what IR would look like if non-core actors’ conceptions of ‘the international’ were also considered. This article analyzes conceptions of ‘the international’ in Turkey as an example of a non-core context. In doing this, the article develops and offers a new analytical framework which breaks down the components of conceptions of ‘the international’ into three questions: ‘what’, ‘who’, and ‘where’ of world politics – namely, the main dynamics of world politics, the main actors of world politics, and the location where world politics takes place. I utilize this framework to empirically analyze the election manifestos and party programs of the political parties in Turkey, and tease out their conceptions of ‘the international.’ The article concludes by considering the implications of these findings for IR scholarship in general.
Since the late 1990s, postcolonial feminist approaches have made significant inroads into the dis... more Since the late 1990s, postcolonial feminist approaches have made significant inroads into the discipline of International Relations (IR). This paper is interested in revealing how this body of scholarship can enhance our understanding of the continuities and transformations in world politics and, relatedly, how the discipline of IR should respond to them. The paper argues that one of the ways through which these dynamics can be made sense of is to examine hierarchies and exclusions in world politics and how subordinated actors challenge them. As such, by centralizing racial, gendered, and class-based relations of domination and their contestation in their analysis, postcolonial feminist IR can offer significant insights into understanding the continuities and changes in world politics. Based on this argument, the paper first unpacks the beginnings of postcolonial feminist thinking. Then, it looks at the emergence of postcolonial feminism in IR and discusses the novel insights provided by this body of scholarship to the discipline through revealing how it problematizes the mainstream and critical IR approaches. To further elaborate on the postcolonial feminist IR’s contributions to the study of world politics, then, the paper looks at how it studies international political economy (IPE). The paper concludes by discussing the implications of postcolonial feminist analysis both for the IR discipline as well as for world politics.
Uluslararası İlişkiler (Uİ) disiplininde postkolonyal yaklaşımlar 1990’larda ortaya çıkmıştır. Di... more Uluslararası İlişkiler (Uİ) disiplininde postkolonyal yaklaşımlar 1990’larda ortaya çıkmıştır. Disipline postkolonyal bakış ise, farklı eleştirel Uİ yaklaşımları ile etkileşim içinde postkolonyal teoriyi ve eleştirisini Uİ kuramlarına ve güvenlik çalışmalarına getiren çalışmalar tarafından şekillenmiştir. Bu çalışmalar, gerek uluslararası ilişkiler gerekse güvenlik söz konusu olduğunda, Batı-dışı bağlamlardaki deneyimleri anlamanın öneminin altını çizmiştir. Disiplindeki Avrupa-merkezci yaklaşımların bu deneyimleri ve onlarla bağlantılı olarak ortaya çıkan güvenlik ilişkilerini anlamadaki kısıtlarına işaret eden bu literatür, aynı zamanda bu kısıtların ötesine nasıl geçilebileceğini tartışmıştır. Bu anlamda kimi yazarlar literatürdeki kavram ve kategorilerin Batı-dışı bağlamlara uygunluğunu sorgulamış ve yaygın güvenlik anlayışlarının sorunsallaştırılmasına katkıda bulunmuşlardır. Kimileri ise Batı-dışı güvenliksizlik deneyimlerinin, Batı ve Batı-dışının karşılıklı inşa ilişkisi analiziyle çalışılması gerektiğini vurgularken, “güvenlik” ve “uluslararası” kavramları arasındaki ilişkiye işaret etmişlerdir. Bu kuramsal tartışmaya Türkiye örneği üzerinden de çeşitli katkılar sağlanarak hem literatürde yeni soruların sorulması mümkün kılınmış, hem de yeni kavram ve anlayışların geliştirilmesi sağlanmıştır. Bu çalışma bir yandan Uİ’deki ve güvenlik çalışmalarındaki Avrupa-merkezcilik tartışmasının çerçevesini ele alırken, diğer yandan da bu tartışmaya Türkiye örneğini üzerinden katkı sunan akademisyenlerin eserlerini incelemeyi amaçlamıştır.
Critical Readings of Turkey’s Foreign Policy, 2022
Both in the conventional accounts of International Relations discipline, as well as in foreign po... more Both in the conventional accounts of International Relations discipline, as well as in foreign policies of various actors, the Global South has predominantly been defined with reference to a “zone of lack” which is “in need of aid and tutelage.” In recent decades, postcolonial IR approaches have problematized this representation through interrogating the reasons for and processes of its construction. While doing this, however, the postcolonial IR literature mainly focuses on the Global North actors’ discourses and practices on the Global South, and how non-core actors view their counterparts remains underexamined. Based on this gap in the literature, this study investigates whether and how Turkey, as a non-core actor in world politics, challenges or contributes to predominant representations of the Global South. As such, the study seeks to answer the question of “how do the politicians in Turkey understand the place of the Global South in world politics?” The study is structured around three sections. The first section looks at previous works done about Turkish foreign policy in the Global South. The second section presents our theoretical framework, and the selected research method. The third section analyses the discourses produced in the 2000s by political elites from both the ruling as well as the opposition political parties in Turkey about the Global South. The study concludes with discussing the implications of our findings.
1980’li yılların sonlarında ortaya çıktığı andan itibaren feminist uluslararası ilişkiler kuramla... more 1980’li yılların sonlarında ortaya çıktığı andan itibaren feminist uluslararası ilişkiler kuramları için güvenlik konusu başat bir öneme sahip olmuştur. İlerleyen yıllarda feminist güvenlik çalışmaları ismiyle anılmaya başlayan ve eleştirel güvenlik çalışmalarının bir parçası olan bu kuramsal perspektifler güvenliğe toplumsal cinsiyet merceğinden bakmayı önermektedir. Çünkü feministlere göre toplumsal birer inşa olan feminenlik ve maskülenlik belirli beklentilere, davranış kalıplarına ve varsayımlara yaslanmakta ve bütün bunlar hem kuramsal tartışmaları hem de güvenlik pratiklerini şekillendirmektedir. Evrensellik iddiasındaki geleneksel güvenlik yaklaşımlarını sorunsallaştıran feministler, bu yaklaşımların belirli erkekler tarafından, belirli maskülen inşaları önceleyecek şekilde oluşturulduğunu ifade ederler. Bu perspektifleri problemleştiren feministlere göre güvenliğin tanımı askeri güvenliğin ötesine geçerek ev içi şiddet, fakirlik, ekolojik problemler gibi konuları içerek şekilde genişletilmelidir. Çünkü farklı seviyelerde gerçekleşen bu güvensizlikler birbirleriyle ilişkilidir. Yine feministler güvenliğin referans nesnesinin (“kimin güvenliği” sorusunun cevabının) devletler değil, bireyler ve topluluklar olduğunu vurgulamışlardır. Bu anlamda feminist güvenlik çalışmaları özellikle toplumsal cinsiyet hiyerarşilerinde altta konumlanan birey ve grupların yaşadıkları şiddet ve güvensizliklere odaklanmışlardır. Feministler aynı zamanda devletlerin vatandaşlarını uluslararası arenadan gelen “tehlikelere” karşı koruyan yegâne aktör olduğuna dair geleneksel varsayıma karşı çıkmış ve devletlerin bazen doğrudan bazense dolaylı olarak bireyleri ve grupları daha da güvensiz kıldıklarını dile getirmişlerdir.
Critical Approaches toInternational Relations Philosophical Foundations and Current Debates, 2021
This chapter aims to introduce the postcolonial approaches in the discipline of International Rel... more This chapter aims to introduce the postcolonial approaches in the discipline of International Relations (IR). Emerged in the 1990s as a part of the critical strand of thought, postcolonial IR approaches are considered as “the fastest growing areas of research in IR” (Sabaratnam, 2020, p. 161; Rutazibwa and Shilliam, 2018, p. 9).
Kuramsal Perspektiften Temel Uluslararası İlişkiler Kavramları (Central IR Concepts from a Theoretical Perspective), 2021
‘Uluslararası’ kavramının Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplinine hem adını vermesi hem de disiplinin ... more ‘Uluslararası’ kavramının Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplinine hem adını vermesi hem de disiplinin çerçevesini şekillendirmesi göz önüne alındığında bu alanın ana nosyonu olduğunu söylemek mümkündür. Aynı zamanda Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplininde yapılan tüm çalışmalar da belirli bir uluslararası anlayışı üzerinden hareket etmektedir. Fakat kavramın disiplindeki bu merkeziliğine rağmen literatürde farklı ‘uluslararası’ anlayışları nadiren açık bir şekilde tartışılmakta, ‘uluslararası nedir’ sorusunu cevaplamaya yönelik kavramsal sorgulamalar yazında yeteri kadar yer bulmamaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı farklı Uluslararası İlişkiler kuramlarındaki ‘uluslararası’ anlayışlarını irdelemektir.
Uluslararası İlişkiler Kuramlarında Savaş ve Barış (War and Peace in the Theories of International Relations), 2019
Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplininde (Uİ) feminist kuramlar 1980’li yıllarda, disiplindeki egeme... more Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplininde (Uİ) feminist kuramlar 1980’li yıllarda, disiplindeki egemen ontolojik, epistemolojik ve metodolojik yaklaşımların sorgulanmaya başladığı, literatürde “üçüncü tartışma” (third debate) olarak da bilinen bir dönemde ortaya çıkmıştır. Feminist Uİ kuramlarının literatüre ana katkılarından biri disiplindeki geleneksel kavram, kategori ve varsayımları problemleştirerek, bunları dönüştürmesidir. Disiplindeki merkezilikleri göz önüne alındığında “savaş” ve “barış” kavramları ve bu kavramlara dair baskın olan anlayış ve yaklaşımların sorunsallaştırarak dönüştürülmesi feminist Uİ kuramlarının literatüre yaptığı önemli katkılardan birisi olarak kabul edilebilir. Bu noktadan hareketle, bu çalışmanın amacı feminist Uİ yazınında savaş ve barış kavramlarının nasıl anlaşıldığını tartışmaktır.
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Papers by Mine Nur Kucuk
This study examines the “critical geopolitics” approach which challenges the traditional geopolitical assumptions commonly referenced in academia, media, and decision-making contexts. While critical geopolitics emerged as a sub-field of Political Geography discipline, it shares significant commonalities with the discipline of International Relations in terms of its subject matters, conceptual discussions, and theoretical arguments. Consequently, one can view critical geopolitics as a notable part of critical approaches that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s within International Relations. This study aims to provide a literature review on, and hence to reveal the main arguments of, critical geopolitics literature. To fulfill this objective, the article first discusses the content of classical geopolitics which came into prominence during the 19th century and examines how the effects of this perspective have manifested themselves up to the present day. This section particularly delves into the contours and diffusion of neoclassical geopolitical thought, a phenomenon that gained prominence in the 1970s and is characterized as a “geopolitical revival” in the literature. The article then addresses the criticisms brought by critical geopolitics to these classical/neoclassical approaches with reference to the difference between “geography of politics” and “politics of geography.” This section also focuses on the emergence and the main arguments of critical geopolitics. Subsequently, the criticisms that critical geopolitics levies against traditional International Relations theories are explored through “territorial trap” argument of John Agnew, who is one of the most prominent figures in critical geopolitics literature. The last section of the study focuses on the intersection between critical geopolitics and other critical approaches, including poststructuralism, Marxism, feminism, and postcolonialism. Given all those discussions available in the literature and the context we are going through, the study concludes by stressing the ongoing need for an engagement with critical geopolitics, particularly concerning its focus on spatiality, discourse, and power relations.
Keywords: Third World, Global South, Non-Core; International, Critical IR Approaches
Following the end of the Cold War, critical security approaches have made significant inroads into the security studies scholarship. The relationship between migration and security has been one of the most significant issues in this literature. This article aims to discuss the novel contributions of one of the approaches in critical security studies, namely Aberystwyth school, in understanding the migration-security nexus. These contributions are examined with reference to the example of Syrian refugees in Turkey. The article also scrutinizes Copenhagen and Paris schools, which have been employed more than the Aberystwyth school concerning the migration-security nexus. It elaborates on the distinct theoretical and empirical contributions of these schools, their limitations, and how Aberystwyth school goes beyond these limitations.
Books by Mine Nur Kucuk
This study examines the “critical geopolitics” approach which challenges the traditional geopolitical assumptions commonly referenced in academia, media, and decision-making contexts. While critical geopolitics emerged as a sub-field of Political Geography discipline, it shares significant commonalities with the discipline of International Relations in terms of its subject matters, conceptual discussions, and theoretical arguments. Consequently, one can view critical geopolitics as a notable part of critical approaches that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s within International Relations. This study aims to provide a literature review on, and hence to reveal the main arguments of, critical geopolitics literature. To fulfill this objective, the article first discusses the content of classical geopolitics which came into prominence during the 19th century and examines how the effects of this perspective have manifested themselves up to the present day. This section particularly delves into the contours and diffusion of neoclassical geopolitical thought, a phenomenon that gained prominence in the 1970s and is characterized as a “geopolitical revival” in the literature. The article then addresses the criticisms brought by critical geopolitics to these classical/neoclassical approaches with reference to the difference between “geography of politics” and “politics of geography.” This section also focuses on the emergence and the main arguments of critical geopolitics. Subsequently, the criticisms that critical geopolitics levies against traditional International Relations theories are explored through “territorial trap” argument of John Agnew, who is one of the most prominent figures in critical geopolitics literature. The last section of the study focuses on the intersection between critical geopolitics and other critical approaches, including poststructuralism, Marxism, feminism, and postcolonialism. Given all those discussions available in the literature and the context we are going through, the study concludes by stressing the ongoing need for an engagement with critical geopolitics, particularly concerning its focus on spatiality, discourse, and power relations.
Keywords: Third World, Global South, Non-Core; International, Critical IR Approaches
Following the end of the Cold War, critical security approaches have made significant inroads into the security studies scholarship. The relationship between migration and security has been one of the most significant issues in this literature. This article aims to discuss the novel contributions of one of the approaches in critical security studies, namely Aberystwyth school, in understanding the migration-security nexus. These contributions are examined with reference to the example of Syrian refugees in Turkey. The article also scrutinizes Copenhagen and Paris schools, which have been employed more than the Aberystwyth school concerning the migration-security nexus. It elaborates on the distinct theoretical and empirical contributions of these schools, their limitations, and how Aberystwyth school goes beyond these limitations.