Constitution of Turkish self : a post-structuralist foreign policy analysis of JDP's foreign policy discourse on distant natural disasters

Abstract

Identity is mostly portrayed as given in foreign policy analysis. However, the power of foreign policy discourse on identity constitution has been raised by poststructuralism for the last 30 years. As the overall objective, this study aims at showing the performative link between foreign policy and identity. Specifically, this study also aims at understanding the performative link between foreign policy discourse of Justice and Development Party (JDP) policy-makers and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) officials on distant natural disasters and the constitution of the Turkish self, through utilizing a critical discourse analysis methodology. There are three main findings of this study, namely (i) the foreign policy discourse of JDP on the distant natural disasters has constituted the Indonesia and Pakistan disasters as important events, (ii) this discourse has constituted the Turkish self as a homogenous community, (iii) this homogenous Turkish self is linked with several signifiers and differentiated from negated external others.