The Torn Republic

NOTE EDITORE

The Torn Republic provides a comprehensive reinterpretation of modern Turkey's political trajectory, connecting history, memory, and identity to explain the country's ongoing turmoil and shifting foreign policy. Yavuz argues that Turkey remains a “torn republic,” caught between competing civilizational projects-Kemalism, Islamism, neo-Ottomanism, pan-Turkism, and Eurasianism-that continue to shape both domestic politics and international orientation. The book begins with the traumas of Ottoman collapse, the Treaty of Sèvres, and the War of Independence, showing how humiliation and rebirth produced a securitized national culture obsessed with survival. It traces how Atatürk's reforms sought to “civilize” society through Westernization and secularism, even as Kurdish and Islamist resistances preserved suppressed memories and grievances. During the Cold War, Turkey's Western integration deepened security dependence but also blended Islam and nationalism into a new mix. The Cyprus crisis, Kurdish uprisings, and Armenian terrorism revived old fears of division, reinforcing the “Sèvres Syndrome.” Turgut Özal's neoliberal reforms in the 1980s opened new opportunities for conservative groups, while his active foreign policy sparked a neo-Ottoman vision. Yavuz demonstrates how Recep Tayyip Erdogan transformed these legacies into a neo-patrimonial order. Initially deploying Europeanization to weaken military tutelage, Erdogan later embraced Islamization and neo-Ottomanism, interpreting the Arab Spring as a civilizational opening. The Gezi protests, corruption scandals, the failed Kurdish peace process, and the 2016 coup attempt turned foreign policy into a survival strategy. Military interventions in Syria, Libya, and Karabakh, transactional deals with Russia, and volatile ties with the West all became instruments of regime consolidation. The Torn Republic portrays Turkey not as a settled regional power but as a liminal state, oscillating between East and West, secularism and Islam, nation and empire-where foreign policy mirrors unresolved traumas and identity struggles.

SOMMARIO

1 - The Trauma and the Rebirth2 - The Formation of the National Security Culture3 - Foundations of Turkish Foreign Policy4 - Turkey's Foreign Policy in the Cold War Era5 - The Cold War Legacy: The Fusion of Islam and Nationalism6 - The Cyprus Operation and the Return of the Ghosts of Sèvres7 - Özal's Worldview and the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis8 - Özal's Adventurous Foreign Policy9 - The Coalition Governments and the February 28 Coup10 - Europeanization and Its Impacts (2002-2010)11 - Islamization of Foreign Policy and Neo-Ottomanism12 - The Gezi Demonstrations and the Fear of Survival13 - Neo-Patrimonial Foreign Policy and the Question of Beka14 - Strategic Autonomy or Authoritarian Symbiosis?

AUTORE

M. Hakan Yavuz is Professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Utah. His wide-ranging scholarly work explores the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the complex trajectories of nation-state formation that followed, with particular attention to the Middle East and the Balkans. He has published extensively on Islamic social and political movements, the evolution and contestation of secularism, and the dynamics of ethnic conflict and genocide. His research also examines questions of memory, identity, and the public sphere, offering a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective on how historical legacies and ideological struggles continue to shape contemporary politics.

ALTRE INFORMAZIONI

• Condizione: Nuovo
• ISBN: 9780197848272
• Dimensioni: 235 x 156 mm
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Pagine Arabe: 800