The political economy of "New Turkish foreign policy": A critical appraisal

Abstract

In the recent Turkish foreign policy literature, political economy approaches have started to emerge in addition to the burgeoning international relations analyses. The political economy perspectives that consider foreign policy as a complex web of dynamic interaction between politics, economics and international relations, contribute significantly to more comprehensively furthering the understanding of foreign policy proactivism in Turkey. However, the current literature mainly concentrates on the role of economy in the new Turkish foreign policy within a descriptive framework rather than adopting a critical approach. Therefore, with the aim of filling the aforementioned gap in the literature, this study puts an emphasis on the constraints of the Turkish economy to be employed as a practical hand in Turkish foreign policy. This study highlights the importance of the transformation of Turkish political economy into a “proactive state” structure in order to operationalize economy as a sustainable vehicle in foreign policy. In this regard, this study discusses the three fundamental constraints (1) lack of comprehensive industrial strategy, (2) asymmetric structure of foreign trade and (3) social polarization/lack of synergy.