Constructivism and the study of security and foreign policy: Identity and strategic culture in Turkish-Greek and Turkish-Israeli relations

Abstract

International Relations Theories have undergone an important transformation in recent past. Third discipline defining debate and the end of the Cold War have provided the space to pursue various approaches in IR. Constructivism emerged within this space. It challenged materialist and rationalist premises of mainstream IR theories. Constructivism basically made use of identity and culture in foreign policy analysis and security studies. It contends that state identities and strategic cultures are important factors to shape states’ foreign and security policies. Alliances and security dilemmas are then conceptualized as social constructions with a view to identity and culture. Turkish-Israeli and Turkish-Greek relations are analyzed in this light and concluded that the Turkish-Isreali alliance and the security dilemma in Turkish-Greek relations have important identity questions and strategic cultural factors.