Turkey's Foreign Policy Narratives: Implications of Global Power Shifts.

• Author: Cakir, Fatma

Turkey's Foreign Policy Narratives: Implications of Global Power Shifts

By Toni Alaranta

Springer Nature, 2022, 176 pages, [euro]93.08, ISBN: 9783030926489

Toni Alaranta's book, which deals with how the ongoing global power shift is reflected in the recent narratives of Turkish foreign policy (TFP), was published in January 2022 as part of the "Global Power Shift" book series conducted by Springer Nature. The author describes this book as a continuation of his previous work, National and State Identity in Turkey: TheTransformation of the Republics Status in the International System (2015). The researcher, who wrote his doctoral thesis on Turkiye, also has other works about Turkiye.

The book consists of 8 chapters, including the introduction and conclusion. The chapters contain the discussions and analysis of historical processes that need to be addressed on the way to the main argument, in this sense the chapters are interrelated. As the author states, the book contributes to the literature by providing the needed context about Turkish foreign policy, which has undoubtedly become more active and sometimes confusing in recent years (p. 10). The main argument of the book is that the ongoing global power shift coincides in time with the change in Turkish foreign policy narratives. However, the relationship between the liberal international order (LIO) and the change in narratives cannot be explained only with a structural approach, the changing Turkish foreign policy narratives also encourage global power shifts and may play a role in building the post-LIO era. The author uses analysis of historical processes and narrative analysis as a method. In this context, Alaranta primarily benefits from articles in "newspapers (progovernment, opposition supporters and several others), then benefits from official party programs, statements by Turkish officials, articles and briefings published by Turkish think tanks and independent analysts" (p. 7). The book provides an analysis starting with the founding of the Turkish Republic, however, the author's focus is the last twenty years of Turkish history.

Looking at the content of the book, after summarizing the historical course and institutions of the LIO, Alaranta questions the basis of dissatisfaction with the LIO and includes its internal contradictions. The determinations here make the distance to the LIO more understandable in the Turkish narratives that he deals with in the following parts of the...