A Critical Geopolitical Reading of Turkish Foreign Policy

Abstract

This scholarly attempt seeks to understand the evolution of discourses, practices, and representations of the “geopolitical facts” about Turkey’s place in the (West-centric) world order over time. It traces the issue back to the late Ottoman era, elaborating on the transformation of geopolitical codes from a civilisational/imperial discourse to a national one. At the same time, it analyses the rival and alternative geopolitical visions in the era of the modern Turkish Republic as manifestations of deeply rooted contestations about Turkey’s (geo)political identity. With its historical outlook, this chapter will contribute to the analysis and understanding of the intellectual context and political atmosphere that has fermented the discourses on Turkey’s true place in the modern system of states in the period between early Republican era and the end of Cold War bipolarity. By shedding light on the historically rooted rival geopolitical imaginations of Turkey’s geographical character, this chapter introduces the initial forms, early experimentations of, ruptures, and continuities in geopolitical imaginations of Turkey up until the end of Cold War. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.