Transformations of Turkish Foreign Policy During the Cold War

Much of the scholarly contributions to the study of Turkish foreign policy during the Cold War have tended to use the Realist lens (and its variants) as their theoretical basis and chose to treat the Cold War as a given structure without problematizing it. According to these studies, Turkey pursued a status quo oriented, reactive and unidimensional foreign policy approach aimed solely at containing the rival superpower that was merely confined to security based inter-state diplomatic engagements. Hence, they have opted to focus on particular events during the era instead of carrying out in-depth studies that take the Cold War as a whole, which led to the emergence of a void in the academic literature.
This book challenges these explanations and addresses the above-mentioned research gap. In order to do so, the author uses an alternative theoretical lens, i.e. the Critical Theory perspective introduced by Robert W. Cox that introduces a different epistemological and ontological perspective, i.e. Vichian historicism. The book asserts that Turkish Foreign Policy during the era was, on the one hand, multidimensional in nature, that is to say it also encompassed economic and socio-cultural dimension that incorporated along with state-to-state relations also transnational ties. On the other hand, it was a proactive one, which means the impetus to change did not come about automatically as a result of external pressures, but it came about as means to satisfy the short, middle and long-term necessities stemming from the country's changing historic blocs and raison d'etats.

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