A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/91976 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications Losing Turkey? Narrative traditions in Western foreign policy analysis by Johanna Tuulia Vuorelma A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Politics and International Studies University of Warwick, Department of Politics and International Studies November 2016 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ___________________________________________________________ 6 Declaration _________________________________________________________________ 8 Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ 9 Chapter 1 – Introduction ______________________________________________________ 10 Research question _________________________________________________________ 33 Research statement and contribution ___________________________________________ 33 Thesis structure ___________________________________________________________ 38 Chapter 2 – The idea of the West _______________________________________________ 40 Introduction _____________________________________________________________ 40 The West’s nature _________________________________________________________ 42 The West as a category _____________________________________________________ 45 The ‘civilisation West’ narrative _______________________________________________ 48 The ‘modern West’ narrative _________________________________________________ 53 The ‘political West’ narrative _________________________________________________ 54 Conclusion ______________________________________________________________ 58 Chapter 3 – A narrative approach _______________________________________________ 60 Introduction _____________________________________________________________ 60 Narratives _______________________________________________________________ 66 Defining narratives ________________________________________________________ 68 Narrative criteria __________________________________________________________ 70 Three narrative approaches __________________________________________________ 76 Autobiographical narratives __________________________________________________ 76 Strategic narratives ________________________________________________________ 79 Ontological narratives ______________________________________________________ 83 Events in narration ________________________________________________________ 86 Analysis of narratives and narrative analysis______________________________________ 93 Narrative analysis versus discourse analysis ______________________________________ 95 Narrative as an aesthetic and interpretative approach ______________________________ 98 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________ 101 Chapter 4 – Methodology and literature review ____________________________________ 102 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 102 Bevir and Rhodes: An interpretative approach __________________________________ 102 Beliefs _________________________________________________________________ 104 Traditions ______________________________________________________________ 107 Dilemmas ______________________________________________________________ 111 Hayden White: Tropology __________________________________________________ 114 Four tropes _____________________________________________________________ 116 Metaphor ______________________________________________________________ 118 Metonymy ______________________________________________________________ 121 Synecdoche _____________________________________________________________ 123 Irony __________________________________________________________________ 126 Understanding tropes _____________________________________________________ 131 Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical tools _____________________________________________ 133 George Lakoff’s metaphors _________________________________________________ 137 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________ 137 Chapter 5 – The ‘losing Turkey’ metaphor _______________________________________ 139 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 139 The triggering events ______________________________________________________ 141 Metonymy: Turkey is lost despite the West _____________________________________ 144 Anti-Western masses vs. educated elites _______________________________________ 148 2 Too different to understand each other ________________________________________ 151 Europe as a metonymical fortress ____________________________________________ 154 Synecdoche: Turkey as a ‘normal’ state ________________________________________ 157 Metonymical representations of integration _____________________________________ 160 Towards synecdoche ______________________________________________________ 165 Irony: Turkey is lost because of the West ______________________________________ 170 The West as a morally weak actor ____________________________________________ 172 The West as a politically weak actor __________________________________________ 179 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________ 183 Chapter 6 – The ‘crossroads’ metaphor of Turkey __________________________________ 186 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 186 How is the ‘crossroads’ metaphor different from ‘losing’? __________________________ 193 Turkey needs to be guided at a crossroads ______________________________________ 196 Is the crossroads a permanent location? _______________________________________ 205 Ironic crossroads _________________________________________________________ 214 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________ 224 Chapter 7 – The ‘Erdogan-for-Turkey’ metaphor __________________________________ 228 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 228 Islam as the all-pervasive generating principle ___________________________________ 235 Erdogan as a product of Turkey’s political culture ________________________________ 240 Erdogan as a power-hungry leader ___________________________________________ 252 Ironic emplotment of the Erdogan-for-Turkey metaphor __________________________ 255 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________ 261 Chapter 8 – Conclusions _____________________________________________________ 265 Bibliography ______________________________________________________________ 291 3 List of illustrations Illustration 1: Erdogan as the cover of Time, 2011. From Bobby Ghosh, ’Erdogan’s Moment’, Time (28 November 2011), pp. 24–31. Illustration 2: Erdogan wearing a fez, 2012. From Halil Karaveli, ’Erdogan Pays for His Foreign Policy’, The National Interest (12 November 2012). Illustration 3: Erdogan in a black and white illustration, 2014. From Sinan Ulgen, ’Sleepless in Ankara: The Post-Erdogan Government’s Big Challenges’, The National Interest (4 August 2014). Illustration 4: ‘Tyrannical’ Erdogan wearing a king’s crown, 2015. From Daniel Pipes, ’Turkey’s unimportant election: The only question is the reach of Erdogan’s tyrannical influence’, The Washington Times (4 June 2015). 4 A note on spelling The spelling of Turkish names is not consistent in the data set with some articles using Turkish chacters such as ğ, ü and ş and others replacing them with g, u and s. In order to accurately reference the sources, both the styles are used in this thesis. 5 Acknowledgements The past five years have probably been the most eventful half a decade in my life. I embarked on the PhD journey in the department of Politics and International Studies at Warwick in October 2011, which turned out to be an important crossroads – to use the metaphorical language explored in this thesis – in many ways. Warwick has provided the most conducive academic environment for critical thinking and lively discussions, not least because of my wonderful supervisors, Dr Christopher Browning and Professor George Christou. I am indebted to their excellent guidance, support and friendship during these years. I am also grateful for the generous funding from the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters’ Jutikkala Fund that enabled me to focus solely on my PhD research. I would also like to acknowledge my wonderful PhD examiners, Professor Bahar Rumelili and Dr Nicola Pratt, who provided excellent and insightful comments on my thesis and, ultimately, made my viva day in January 2017 a truly memorable event – thank you! My colleagues at Warwick made the PhD life enjoyable, even after I relocated to Helsinki in 2013 – thank you especially to Evilena Anastasiou, Bahar Baser, Prapimphan Chiengkul, Michiel Foulon, David Guttormsen, Lewis Herrington, George Iordanou, Ben Jacoby, Ben King, Georg Löfflmann, Misato Matsuoka, Marika Mura, and Zenonas Tziarras. In Finland I have been lucky to work with passionate and dedicated people to advance popular scientific publishing with Politiikasta, an online journal of the Finnish Political Science Association. A big thank to Susanna Hast, Anni Kangas, Noora Kotilanen, Maija