State trasformation and actor proliferation: how Türkiye and South Korea emerged as middle powers in the 21st century

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze how Türkiye and South Korea have emerged as “middle powers” in the 21st century. Both countries have exerted their power over their foreign policy thanks to the transformation the states went through, while both states are taking part in the liberal global economy. In this thesis, it is hoped to contribute to the middle power literature, and to discuss the manifestation of the internal transformation to the foreign policy. Türkiye and South Korea are taken as cases through Process Tracing method and the state transformation they went through is studies with a Neo-Gramscian approach.