Browsing by Subject "Post-colonialism"

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    “Contrapuntal reading” as a method, an ethos, and a metaphor for global IR
    (Oxford University Press, 2016) Bilgin, P.
    How to approach Global International Relations (IR)? This is a question asked by students of IR who recognize the limits of our field while expressing their concern that those who strive for a Global IR have been less-thanclear about the “how to?” question. In this article, I point to Edward W. Said’s approach to “contrapuntal reading” as one way of approaching Global IR that embraces diversity and reflects multiple and overlapping experiences and perspectives of humankind. More specifically, I suggest that contrapuntal reading offers students of IR a method of studying world politics that focuses on our “intertwined and overlapping histories,” past and present; an ethos for approaching IR through raising the “contrapuntal awareness” of its students and offering an anchor for those who translate the findings of different perspectives; and a metaphor for thinking about Global IR as regional and global, one and many. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Studies Association. All rights reserved.
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    Turkey and EU/rope: discourses of inspiration/anxiety in Turkey's foreign policy
    (Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2012-06) Bilgin, P.; Bilgiç, A.
    The literature on Turkey-European Economic Community/Union (EEC/EU) relations scrutinises how various EEC/EU actors vacillate on Turkey's accession to European integration contingent upon their image/s of Turkey. Turkey's own wavering vis-à-vis EEC/EU, however, is almost always explained with reference to its domestic dynamics (political and economic ups and downs) but not Turkey's policy-makers' image/s of the European Community/Union. What often goes unacknowledged is that throughout the history of Turkey-EEC/EU relations, Turkey's policy-makers' discourses have oscillated between representing EU/rope as a source of inspiration and a source of anxiety. Contra those readings of Turkey's relations with EU/rope as revolving around the dichotomy of 'Turkey being European/not', our analysis of Turkey's policy-makers' discourses on EEC/EU at key moments of the relationship during 1959-2004 shows that Turkey's policy-makers' representations of EU/rope are structured around three binaries that give away a persistent ambivalence vis-à-vis EU/rope as a source of and a solution to Turkey's insecurities. Such ambivalence, in turn, is not uncharacteristic of post-colonial encounters.