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1. Mediatised Terrorism: East-West Narratives of Risk

Author:
Seda Çolakoğlu
Publication Date:
01-2025
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
There is a growing body of literature in the social sciences that suggests that we live in a world surrounded by narratives that construct and interpret particular understandings of reality, that serve to make sense of the world. Following the understanding that everyone and everything has a narrative in the world we live in; it would not be wrong to say that these narratives appear in every shape and dimension. For instance, since the media also has a story to tell, we hear, watch, see and witness a wide variety of stories from the media. The media is therefore the producer and distributor of narratives. However, this emphasis has a deeper implication, namely that news stories are not simply a spiral of words describing events. This is because the media convey news to the receiving public by representing, constructing, and reconstructing it (through narratives). We frequently witness about various terrorist acts across the world via media. Saira Ali accurately examines this particular topic. Her book is for those who are concerned about how terrorism news is presented to audiences through the media and how it is made sense of in a country-specific and context-specific way. This approach also allows for a contextualisation of the construction of terrorism news narratives, within different cultural, social, and political contexts (p.5,10). The author embarks on an intellectual journey of curiosity regarding the mediatisation of terrorism in two distinct worlds. These worlds are Australia, where the risk of terrorism is quite low but it has taken drastic legal measures out of fear of global terrorism after 9/11, and Pakistan, with a more grey policy altough caught in the spiral of a complex terrorist atmospher. In this way, Ali’s intellectual effort is to interrogate the narrative that global terrorism is mostly damaging to Western civilisation by including the East in her analysis. Ali’s analysis is basically founded on an argument that “the reality of terrorism is constructed through discourse” (p. 6).
Topic:
Terrorism, Media, Book Review, and Narrative
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Diaspora Organisations in International Affairs

Author:
Mesut Özcan
Publication Date:
01-2025
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
Diasporas and their organisations, which traditionally aimed to serve their interest in the homeland and abroad, have long been studied under several social science disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, political science, and geography. At the beginning of the 2000s, for instance, human and political geographers started to focus on diaspora realizing that it is a geographical concept, which addresses various geographical themes such as dispersion, boundaries, territory (as homeland), and identity. The “geographical turn” contributed to the concept theoretically, and also to transnationalism and migration studies empirically by which cases were reconsidered through the lens of geographical concepts, such as space, place, and time. Similar to geographers’ arguments, diaspora organisations (DO) -as a distinct form of collectivity- and their activities are very relevant to what we study in International Relations (IR), especially when it comes to exploring DOs’ role that transcends state borders in development, human rights, conflict, and peace. In that regard, attempts to introduce novel contributions from various disciplines have the potential to significantly enhance our comprehension of the theory of diaspora and its associated organizations.
Topic:
International Affairs, Diaspora, Book Review, and Organizations
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders

Author:
Hasan Basri Barit
Publication Date:
01-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
In the last decade, there has been a growing interest in Global International Relations (IR), which calls for a non-Western approach to IR, an endeavor that has produced several books and articles. One recent such work is Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders by Ayşe Zarakol in 2022. This book differs from other studies on Global IR with its alternative narrative based on the Chingissid world order, which challenges Eurocentrism from an Asian angle with the help of the IR terminology that we use today.
Topic:
International Relations, History, Book Review, and International Order
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Security Studies: Classic to Post-Modern Approaches

Author:
Vildan Meydan
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
What kinds of security threats do states currently face in international relations? What areas do security studies cover in the discipline? Contrary to the military security-oriented structure of the Cold War period, the new era requires a more inclusive and alternative approach to security studies due to the effects of globalization. Therefore, many areas that were seen as low politics issues in the early years of the discipline have begun to play an important role in shaping today’s international system and the security perception of states. For someone seeking to answer the above questions, Security Studies: Classic to Post-Modern Approaches, edited by Arda Özkan and Göktürk Tüysüzoğlu, is a good starting point. Within the framework of its eighteen chapters, the book is an important reference that not only deals with the classical approaches of the discipline, such as military issues, but also explores post-modern approaches and contemporary topics, such as energy, environment, migration, and so on.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Book Review
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. The Making of the World: How International Organizations Shape Our Future

Author:
Asiye Gün Güneş Gülal
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
The role of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the global system is a contentious issue. States delegate some responsibilities and in certain instances accept growing autonomy. Coalitions address complex environments, wasteful overlaps and jurisdictional trespass, turning them into productive divisions of labor. Therefore, Yves Schemeil aims to explain in his new book, The Making of the World: How International Organizations Shape Our Future, the expansion, collaboration, competition, and death of international organizations (IO), offering “a concise and topical discussion” to distinguish the book from the IOs literature. The book examines the impact of IOs on daily life and the exogenous contexts that constrain their action, focusing on inputs rather than outputs and emphasizing networks rather than single units. It highlights the interplay between factors employed in IOs, such as collaborative trends and networking potential. Networks are essential for IOs as they help prevent deadlocks, make the fight for narrower win-sets obsolete, and solve the credibility problem by generating trust. IOs have, moreover, invented new ways of management and governance, making their organizations more flexible, cognitive, transformative, and networking-based.
Topic:
International Organization, Non-Governmental Organization, Book Review, and International Order
Political Geography:
Global Focus

6. Spring 2024 edition of Strategic Visions

Author:
Joseph Johnson, Alan McPherson, and Andrew Santora
Publication Date:
05-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Strategic Visions
Institution:
Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy, Temple University
Abstract:
Contents News from the Director……… 2 Note from the Davis Fellow…. 7 News from the Community…. 8 Research Reports….. 11 Checking in with the CENFAD Emerging Scholar…. 13 CENFAD Community Interviews Dr. Michael Brenes……. 15 Dr. Stephanie Freeman…… 20 Retrospective: The “All Roads Lead to Gettysburg Conference”….. 26 Book Reviews The Third Reich’s Elite Schools: A History of the Napolas by Helen Roche, reviewed by Andrew Santora …………………….. 30
Topic:
History, Book Review, Higher Education, Interview, and Use of Force
Political Geography:
Europe, Global Focus, and United States of America

7. Book Review: Javier Blas and Jack Farchy, The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources (Oxford University Press, 2021)

Author:
Hüseyin Pusat Kildiş
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources sheds light on commodity traders, crucial yet often overlooked actors in the global economy. The book is a collection of stories about them, how they get involved in political affairs, where they get their power, and how they work in the shadows. These stories from different times and places show the immense power of commodity traders. Methodologically, the book is mainly based on interviews with more than a hundred traders. Blas and Farchy also collected thousands of pages that detail the finances, business networks, and structure of commodity traders’ organizations (p. 11-12). The book consists of 13 chapters. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are particularly important since they reveal how commodity traders operate by addressing the energy crisis that arose due to waves of nationalization in the Middle East in the 1970s and 1980s. The book’s main purpose is to reveal the role of despots and tyrants in the global economy by pointing out the unsavory aspects of their businesses, such as bribery and offshore banking. Since most of these methods are illegal and cannot be used by official companies and institutions, such commodity traders come to the fore.
Topic:
History, Economy, Book Review, Commodities, and Trade
Political Geography:
Middle East and Global Focus

8. Book Review: Joseph McQuade, A Genealogy of Terrorism: Colonial Law and the Origins of an Idea (Cambridge University Press, 2021) & Alice Martini, The UN and Counter-Terrorism: Global Hegemonies, Power and Identities (Routledge, 2021)

Author:
Tuncer Beyribey
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
Since the mid-2000s, scholars have been using critical theory, poststructuralism, feminism/ queer theory, and postcolonialism to critique the hegemonic narrative of terrorism. They analyze how terrorism discourse (re)produces global hierarchies and power relations. This involves archeological and genealogical research, assessing the formation of the terrorism discourse by analyzing how the peculiar Western discourse has become hegemonic. By incorporating postcolonial and genealogical studies into critical terrorism studies, McQuade and Martini attempt to explain this process in their respective works. Their books are complementary in that they allow readers to trace the historical development of the concept of terrorism from British India to its ubiquity in international institutions. Although they cover different historical periods, it is still possible to see how the concept of terrorism has been used in both of those historical periods – during British colonialism in India in McQuade’s book and after the 1980s in Martini’s book – to normalize discriminatory practices against (post)colonial societies.
Topic:
Terrorism, United Nations, History, Hegemony, and Book Review
Political Geography:
Global Focus

9. Book Review: Sebastian Rosato, Intentions in Great Power Politics: Uncertainty and the Roots of Conflict (Yale University Press, 2021)

Author:
Orhan Mehmed Irfan
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
Students and practitioners of International Relations have always been wondering whether the effects of anarchy can be mitigated, where anarchy stands for the absence of hierarchical organization among states. In other words, is it possible for states to abandon their endemic suspicions and anxieties, and start to trust each other? Sebastian Rosato, with his timely and much needed work, concludes that this cannot be the case and those who foresee rosy scenarios for the United States (US)-China rivalry are, to put it mildly, mistaken.
Topic:
Power Politics, Book Review, Conflict, and Rivalry
Political Geography:
China, Global Focus, and United States of America

10. Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

Author:
Jonathan Nash
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
In her book, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism, Anne Applebaum explores a political shift that many democracies face today. In her analysis of global democracies, Applebaum explains why authoritarianism is on the rise and how it is being welcomed by many. She argues that the world is becoming more authoritarian, and democracy is starting to slip, especially with the recent election of US President Donald Trump. Through her writing, Applebaum hopes to bring awareness to this phenomenon with the hope of recognizing it and resisting it. Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, who has worked for several magazines and newspapers. These include The Spectator, The Evening Standard, Slate, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Economist, The Independent, The Washington Post, and currently The Atlantic. Her career provides her with great access to the top decision-making circles both in Europe and the United States during critical times, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, or the Brexit referendum and its aftermath.
Topic:
Authoritarianism, Democracy, Book Review, and Journalism
Political Geography:
Europe, Global Focus, and United States of America