“Only strong states can survive in Turkey's geography”: the uses of “geopolitical truths” in Turkey

Date
2007
Authors
Bilgin, P.
Advisor
Instructor
Source Title
Political Geography
Print ISSN
0962-6298
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
Pergamon Press
Volume
26
Issue
7
Pages
740 - 756
Language
English
Type
Article
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract

Following Critical Geopoliticians' re-formulation of geopolitics as discourse, this article historically traces, politically contextualizes, and empirically analyzes the linguistic practices as found in myriad actors' formal geopolitical writings and public articulations in Turkey. It shows how the production and dissemination of a particular understanding of geopolitics as a "scientific" perspective on statecraft, and the military as an actor licensed to craft state policies (by virtue of its mastery over geopolitical knowledge) has allowed the military to play a central role in shaping domestic political processes. Subsequent to the erosion of bi-partisan consensus on foreign policy from the mid-1960s onwards, civilian actors also began to tap geopolitics but as a foreign policy tool. By the end of the 1990s, geopolitics had become rooted in the discourses of both military and civilian actors shaping (for "better" or for "worse") Turkey's "foreign" relations with the European Union as well as "domestic" political processes.

Course
Other identifiers
Book Title
Keywords
Civil-military relations, Geopolitical discourse, The European Union, Turkey, Civil-military relationship, European Union, Foreign policy, Geopolitics, Political discourse, Political process, Eurasia
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)