Populist uses of history and foreign policy

Abstract

This chapter engages with the question of how populist uses of history in the present can theoretically and empirically be studied across global cases in IR. It argues that two conceptual moves are necessary in forging a theoretically driven empirical study of the populist use of history and its relationship to foreign policy. One is the conceptual treatment of historical representations as long-durée myths, that are deployed by populist actors in linking the past with the present, and which possess strong emotive content and pervasiveness across a given society. The other is the theoretical grounding of the study of myths and their repercussions on foreign policy in the treatment of Self/Other relations by constructivist IR theory. The chapter demonstrates these arguments through an empirical study of the use of history in the making of anti-Western foreign policy in the case of Turkey.