Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi İktidarında Türk Dış Politikasında Yumuşak Güç Uygulamaları

Abstract

ABSTRACT Özbilen, Tuba. Soft Power Applications of The Turkish Foreign Policy in The Justice and Development Party Power Period, Phd, Ankara, 2022.

The concept of power has always been an important subject of both political science and international relations. Considering the criticisms of the concept, the content and effects of soft power practices during the AKP Government period have been seen as an important field of study. In this study; The axial shift discussions of soft power applications during the AKP Government were also taken into account. The main argument of the study; which are described as soft power implementations of AKP Government, are examined in the African case study; The relations developed with the African region are the result of a multi-dimensional foreign policy preference that was put forward after the changing world conjuncture and order. In addition to that, it has been determined that Turkey has different practices considering its relations and tone towards the African region than the other actors’ colonialist approach in the past and other actors’ new soft power understanding and implementations nowadays towards the African region. So, The definition of" adaptive power", which is a different definition of Turkey's soft power approach, has been suggested. In the first part of the study, the problem and method of the research were expressed. In the second part, the theoretical framework was formed by considering the definition of power and its types. In the third part, Turkish Foreign Policy has been analyzed by dividing into periods, its general characteristics have been determined, and thus the opportunity to compare with the AKP Government period has been created for the axial shift discussion. In the fourth and fifth chapters, the practices on the African sample during the mentioned period are analyzed. The thesis study was completed with the "Evaluation and Conclusion" part. Key Words: Power, Soft Power, Adaptive Power, AKP Government, Axial Shift, Africa