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51. Turkey's Middle East Policies: Between Neo-Ottomanism and Kemalism

Author:
Ömer Taspinar
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
In what represents a remarkable departure from its policy of non-involvement, Turkey is once again becoming an important player in the Middle East. In recent years, Ankara has shown a growing willingness to mediate in the Arab– Israeli conflict; attended Arab League conferences; contributed to UN forces in Lebanon and NATO forces in Afghanistan; assumed a leadership position in the Organization of Islamic Conference and established closer ties with Syria, Iran, and Iraq.
Topic:
International Political Economy, Islam, Nationalism, and Religion
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Middle East, Israel, and Syria

52. Turkey and Iraqi Kurds: Conflict or Cooperation?

Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
At a time when rising Arab-Kurdish tensions again threaten Iraq's stability, neighbouring Turkey has begun to cast a large shadow over Iraqi Kurdistan. It has been a study in contrasts: Turkish jets periodically bomb suspected hideouts of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, PKK) in northern Iraq, and Ankara expresses alarm at the prospect of Kurdish independence, yet at the same time has significantly deepened its ties to the Iraqi Kurdish region. Both Turkey and Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG, a term Turkey studiously avoids) would be well served by keeping ultra-nationalism at bay and continuing to invest in a relationship that, though fragile and buffeted by the many uncertainties surrounding Iraq, has proved remarkably pragmatic and fruitful.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Iraq, Turkey, and Middle East

53. Subnational State-Building in Afghanistan

Author:
Hamish Nixon
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
Since 2004, the Afghan government and its international partners have become increasingly aware that issues and challenges surrounding subnational governance in Afghanistan are crucial to national development, stability, and security. This period has also been a time of extraordinary change in subnational governance structures, with the election of Provincial Councils, the establishment of Provincial Development Committees (PDCs), increases in Public Administrative Reform (PAR) efforts, and the expansion of the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) into a large number of communities. To assess these changes, AREU conducted extensive field and policy research on subnational governance beginning in April 2005. This synthesis paper identifies and analyses key issues affecting state-building interventions at subnational levels, and their implications for current and future governance programming.
Topic:
Nationalism, Governance, State Building, and Subnationalism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

54. “The Indivisible Unity of the Nation:” Nationalisms that Tear Us Apart in Democratization Process

Author:
Ferhat Kentel, Savas Genc, and Meltem Ahıska
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
This study examines Turkish nationalism as a nationalism that is reproduced while being consumed, regenerating in a different form, while considering it as stratagem set forth as a nationalism that is in the process of transformation. Thereby, the study argues that the strategy of modern secular nationalism endeavors to gain ground in the face of globalization and to control its existing status. Globalization provides individuals with a wider range of opportunities, while at the same time, it gives rise to an acute sense of insecurity. As a result of this insecurity, nationalism – as the ideology of the nation-state – is reproduced with different contents by adopting the discourse of “reunification” on the level of identity pertaining to the terms of class and culture and through religious and ethnic classes and identities, even encompassing regional and urban identities reflecting varying contents. After examining the manifestation of these different creations in terms of individuals, the study analyzes their relationship with religiosity. The path religiosities traverse in daily life practices also sheds light on the practices of nationalism. Neither a “real” nor “correct” religion exists in the “actual” practices of religion, nor is a “real” or “correct nationalism” present within the “actual” practices of nationalism. A fortiori, “how” nationalism is exercised and the “ways” and methods individuals utilize gain more importance.
Topic:
Security, Democratization, Nationalism, and Kurds
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Mediterranean

55. Pakistan: The Resurgence of Baluch Natonalism

Author:
Frédéric Grare
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Thirty years after a bloody conflict that official sources estimate caused more than five thousand deaths among the rebels and almost three thousand among the Pakistan Army, Baluchistan seems to be heading toward another armed insurrection. During the summer of 2004, there were numerous attacks against the army and the paramilitary forces as well as repeated sabotage of oil pipelines. Since the rape of a female doctor by a group of soldiers on January 2, 2005, in the hospital in Sui, the principal gas-producing center in Baluchistan, assaults have multiplied, culminating in a pitched battle between the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary unit, and the local Bugtis, one of the largest Baluch tribes. According to the Pakistani daily, The Nation, approximately 1,568 “terrorist” attacks occurred through April 3, 2005. These attacks have not been confined only to tribal areas but have targeted Pakistani armed forces and Chinese nationals working on major regional projects all over the province.
Topic:
Nationalism, Religion, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Pakistan, China, and Middle East

56. The Requirements of European International Society: Modernity and Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire

Author:
Ayla GÖL
Publication Date:
12-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
This paper critically examines the 'admittance' of the Ottoman Empire as the first non-European and non-Christian state into European international society, challenges the idea that international society had a universal character, and explores how the Empire encountered and adapted to the requirements of this society. There are two premises to explore. First, the Empire was never accepted as an equal member of the European society of states. Second, the Ottoman Empire's desire to enter European international society initiated its modernisation, which gradually led to the emergence of Turkish nationalism in the twentieth century. The first part of this paper deals with the 'otherness' of the Ottoman Empire within European international society. The second part explains the paradoxical character of Ottoman–European relations, which initiated the Empire's modernisation. The last part explores the emergence of Turkish nationalism in relation to the policies of Ottoman modernisation that brought the transition from an Islamic empire into a modern secular nation-state. It concludes by questioning whether or not the modern Turkish state is considered a European member of international society.
Topic:
International Relations and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Middle East

57. Ideas, Culture and Political Analysis Workshop

Author:
Thomas Risse, Sarah Mendelson, Neil Fligstein, Jan Kubik, Jeffrey T. Checkel, Consuelo Cruz, Kathleen McNamara, Sheri Berman, Frank Dobbin, Mark Blyth, Ken Pollack, George Steinmetz, Daniel Philpott, Gideon Rose, Martha Finnemore, Kathryn Skikkink, Marie Gottschalk, John Kurt Jacobsen, and Anna Seleny
Publication Date:
05-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
The last decade or so has witnessed a resurgence in scholarship employing ideational and cultural factors in the analysis of political life. This scholarship has addressed political phenomena across a variety of national and international settings, with studies of European politics being particularly well represented. For example, the work of scholars like Peter Hall (1993), Peter Katzenstein (1996), Ronald Inglehart (1997), Robert Putnam (1994) and Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (1995) has improved our understandings of European polities, societies and economies. Yet despite a recent rise in interest, ideational and cultural explanations still meet with skepticism in many quarters of the discipline. Some scholars doubt whether non-material factors like ideas or culture have independent causal effects, and others, who accept that such factors might matter, despair of devising viable ways of analyzing their impact on political life.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Security, Democratization, Economics, Government, Human Rights, International Cooperation, Nationalism, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, France, and Latin America