Ambivalent Identity, Antagonistic Others and Hegemonic Projects: A Poststructuralist Discursive Analysis of Türkiye's Articulations of Multilateral Military Interventions
In this dissertation political scientist Birsen Erdogan examined how Türkiye’s foreign policy elite articulated and contested multilateral interventions highlighting the fluidity of identity and discourse in shaping foreign policy. By analysing interventions in Libya, Syria, and UN peacekeeping missions, her research provided a multi-dimensional framework for understanding how interventions were justified and negotiated within shifting geopolitical contexts. Erdogan contributed to critical foreign policy literature, particularly on liminal powers, and offered insights into populism, nationalism, and their impact on democratic spaces.
Changing discourses and identities in Türkiye's Foreign Policy
Erdogan examines how Türkiye’s foreign policy elite articulate and contest multilateral military interventions using Poststructuralist Discourse Theory (PSDT). Focusing on interventions in Libya, Syria, and UN peacekeeping missions, she explores how political leaders construct identities, justify actions, and adapt their rhetoric in response to changing political and global contexts. Erdogan argues that identities and discourses are fluid, challenging the idea of stable political actors. Using a three-dimensional analytical model, it reveals how Türkiye’s foreign policy is shaped by narratives of national identity, security, and hegemonic relations. Erdogan's research contributes to critical and post-structuralist studies, offering a nuanced perspective on discourse in foreign policy and suggesting future research on civil society, media, and comparative studies with other middle powers.
Birsen Erdogan contributes to critical security studies (CSS), foreign policy analysis (FPA) and international law literature, particularly on liminal powers, and their foreign policies. Her research offers insights into identity formation, ideational and normative factors, and foreign policy decision-making, when actors discuss important issues such as military interventions. Researchers and students of critical approached in IR, CSS, FPA and critical international law, as well as Discourse Analysis will find this research relevant and important.