Bipolar disorder : "The West and the Rest"

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buir.advisorHelvacıoğlu, Banu
dc.contributor.authorJohnston, Rachel
dc.date.accessioned2016-07-01T10:55:17Z
dc.date.available2016-07-01T10:55:17Z
dc.date.issued2002
dc.departmentDepartment of Political Science and Public Administrationen_US
dc.descriptionCataloged from PDF version of article.en_US
dc.description.abstracthe current ‘War on Terror’ has revitalized the language of friends and enemies, us and them, good and evil. The whole world has been forced to choose sides: are you with the terrorists or are you with the ‘freedom loving democracies’? This bipolar construct of west/rest dates back to the European expansion in the 16th century. Despite shifts in political conjunctures and alliances since then, it has persisted as an organizing principle operating on a variety of levels, as an idea, an ideology and an identity. Consistently privileging the west’s role in defining itself in opposition to its Others, the west/rest construct is a political tool with a powerful impact on how we perceive ourselves and the world. The main question this thesis poses is: can the divide inherent in the west/rest iv construct be reconciled? With the current war dividing us yet again into friends and enemies, and with Islam silently targeted as the alter-ego of terrorism, understanding the ways in which ‘the west and the rest’ dynamic has determined the boundaries of ‘us versus them’ in the past, allows us to appreciate the current role it plays in orchestrating the present. Turkey is used as an illustrative case, by examining how the construct of Islam as Other functions politically within an Islamic democracy. A tentative conclusion this thesis offers is that alternative conceptions of Islamic identity, originating from within civil society, may well provide an opportunity for reconciling the deadlock of ‘the west and the rest’ as it is expressed both inside Turkey and in the international arena.en_US
dc.description.degreeM.A.en_US
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityJohnston, Rachelen_US
dc.format.extentix, 99 leavesen_US
dc.identifier.itemidBILKUTUPB067859
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11693/29184
dc.language.isoEnglishen_US
dc.publisherBilkent Universityen_US
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessen_US
dc.subjectSeptember 11then_US
dc.subjectWar on Terroren_US
dc.subject“Friend and Foe”en_US
dc.subjectDiscourse of Poweren_US
dc.subjectOrientalismen_US
dc.subjectClash of Civilizationsen_US
dc.subjectIslamen_US
dc.subjectStateen_US
dc.subjectCivil Society Relationshipen_US
dc.subject.lccHV6432 .J64 2002en_US
dc.subject.lcshSeptember 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001-en_US
dc.titleBipolar disorder : "The West and the Rest"en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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Dept. of Political Science and Public Administration - Master's degree