Insight Turkey / issues

Editor's Note | Summer 2017

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:50:31 GMT

The American Presidential election in 2016 is a significant breakpoint in American history for both the uniqueness of the election campaigns and the unexpected results. After Donald Trump declared his electoral victory, getting fewer votes than his rival, Hillary Clinton, in nationwide elections, thousands of Americans poured out into the streets, protested the results and denounced Trump’s presidency.

The Legitimacy Crisis of the U.S. Elite and the Rise of Donald Trump

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:49:00 GMT

The American political elite’s legitimacy crisis is demonstrated by Trump’s rise by challenging Wall Street, both main parties’ leadership, and limited government. His challenge overlapped with Leftist Bernie Sanders’ who also focused on deep inequalities in the U.S. The crisis is rooted in the neoliberal political-economic model adopted in the 1970s to shore up American elite power but which generated major crises at home and challenges abroad. Such challenges demand a new ‘grand bargain’ that is unlikely to emerge without prolonged domestic political strife and resistance to American global power.

Mr. Trump, Post Nuclear Ban Treaty, NATO’s Nuclear Weapons in Europe are Obsolete

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:48:00 GMT

This commentary makes the case as to why the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons that have been stationed in Europe since the 1960s should be removed, and how this could be done in the most effective way under the presidency of Donald Trump. It concludes with a summary of the expected benefits of this move, and a reminder that the costs of continued muddling through are substantial.

The Long History of Islam as a Collective “Other” of the West and the Rise of Islamophobia in the U.S. after Trump

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:47:00 GMT

In the last two decades, Islamophobia in the West has become mainstream. Covertly, Islamophobia is the last link in the chain of a long tradition of Eurocentrism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and racism. This article analyzes the recent rise of Islamophobic policies and practices in the United States. In particular, the false fear of Islam, which carried Trump into power, seems to have turned into a ‘reason’ for all kinds of violence and oppression against Muslims both domestically and abroad.

Right Wing Populism in the West: Social Media Discourse and Echo Chambers

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:46:00 GMT

The commentary examines the roots of electoral shifts towards right wing populist parties and groups in the West. It shows how legitimate economic grievances of lower classes have been strategically appropriated by political elites to project xenophobic discourses and how globalist-capitalist parties capitalize on such sentiments. It discusses the British Brexit vote as a quintessential example of strategic misplacement of migration issue as the main problem to disguise the democratic deficit of a hyper-normalized neoliberal economic order. The commentary also examines the links between technological design of Social Media technologies and the notion of post-politics era.

Al-Aqsa Mosque’s Incident in July 2017: Affirming the Policy of Deterrence

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:45:00 GMT

The whole Middle East region passed through an upheaval and transformation for two weeks in the middle of July 2017. The event, now called: “The uprising of al-Asbat Gate,” not only took place in the heart of Jerusalem, one of the most important cities in the world, but also in the heart of al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the most heated and sensitive spots on earth. Those two weeks could be indeed considered as a milestone in the ongoing clash in the Holy Land.

The Belt and Road Initiative and Middle Eastern Politics: Challenges Ahead

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:44:00 GMT

Involving sixty countries, the Belt and Road Initiative sparked a global debate because of its potential economic and political implications. Sceptics argue this project cannot achieve its objectives as it requires close cooperation amongst many countries whose national interests are on a collision course. The optimists contend the initiative provides a win-win scenario for participating countries. This paper argues that success of the project in the Middle East depends on overcoming several challenges including: eliminating security threats and terrorist organizations; finding sustainable solutions to political tensions and armed conflicts; and consolidating good governance.

Trump and the Middle East: 'Barking Dogs Seldom Bite'

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:41:00 GMT

In drafting its Middle East policy, the Trump administration appears to depart from the soft power rhetoric of the Obama years, seemingly favoring a more hawkish, hard power approach to dealing with America’s most important interests in the region: the defeat of ISIS and the containment of Iran. While many regional partners hope for a radical U.S. foreign policy shift after years of perceived American disengagement, Trump seems to be constrained by path dependency. He inherits a region in turmoil, a public adverse to regional military engagements for peripheral interests, and a major strategic discrepancy between ambition and capability. Consequently, the new White House will be forced to continue Obama’s policy of delegation and multilateralism.

Trump and the Rise of the Media-Industrial Complex in American Politics

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:43:00 GMT

While controversies and debates proliferate about Trump's Presidency, there is little analysis of the context and factors leading to his rise and politics. The liberal axiom (Trump has won, but Russia swayed the 2016 U.S. elections) often conceals from view a significant episode that involves new players and dynamics shifting the Republican Party and U.S. politics to the radical right, which ultimately contributed to Trump’s election. This analysis provides an investigation into the actors and intricacies that enabled Trump’s election success and shaped contemporary U.S. politics. It examines structural, cultural and personal dynamics behind Trump’s victory. In particular, the study identifies the specific role played by new media platforms and industrial interests (the media-industrial complex) as a new force shaping U.S. politics.

U.S.-China Competition over Nuclear North Korea

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:42:00 GMT

The often-used description in the American mainstream media and geopolitical literature of “North Korea’s nuclear aggression” is misleading. I argue in the first section that Pyongyang’s nuclear strategy has been significantly shaped by the perceived U.S. nuclear existential threat since the early 1950s, portending a quest for a self-reliant nuclear deterrent for the DPRK. The shifting role and impact of U.S.-China competition in the course of the first and second U.S.-DPRK nuclear standoffs is explored as background for examining, in the second section, an intensified nuclear confrontation in the first half of 2017. The concluding section considers common-security engagement in charting an alternative pathway toward establishing a working peace system on the Korean peninsula.

Anatomy of the Libyan Crisis

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:40:00 GMT

In Libya high hopes for change, experienced in 2012 and 2013 after Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown in 2011 by a civil rebellion following a 42-year rule, were lost in the civil war which broke out as a result of a coup attempt in 2014 by Khalifa Haftar. This article aims to investigate the Libyan crisis by taking into consideration the actors involved in the crisis, the causes, bottlenecks and the positions of regional and international actors. The article argues that the Libyan crisis, in a sense, was shaped under the deep impact of the competition experienced among the regional actors in the Arab World following the Arab Spring and suggests that the support for Khalifa Haftar especially provided by some of the countries in the region deepened the Libyan crisis and prevented the Presidential Council established under the leadership of UN Libya Mission from guiding the political transition process in Libya.

Gülenism as “Religionist” Kemalism

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:39:00 GMT

Utilizing Gramsci’s conceptualization of hegemonic struggles through both coercive means of the state and also the production of consent in civil society, the article conducts a comparative textual analysis of the writings and speeches of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Fetullah Gülen. In so doing, the article focuses on four main themes: (1) sacralization of modern knowledge, science, and education; (2) militarism and centrism; (3) statism and corporatism; and, (4) ethnic nationalism and Turkism. It argues that the ideology of the Gülen’s “service movement” shares the principles of Kemalism in the above-mentioned domains, while couching them within a religious discursive framework. Since Gülenism uses Quranic terminology out of context and for secular ends, the term “religionist” is used instead of “religious” to describe this ideology.

The Role of the Islamic Community in Peacebuilding in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina: Case Study of East Bosnia

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:38:00 GMT

The main aim of this paper is to prove that religious communities can play a vital role in building peace and trust among conflict-divided societies such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. A special focus has been put on five municipalities in East Bosnia that survived the genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass deportation. Enforcement, peacekeeping, agreement making, and institution and capacity-building are the main elements that have to be taken into consideration in the process of peacebuilding. The peacebuilding process is challenged in East Bosnia due to the lack of desire on the part of the Serbian Orthodox Church to take part and be involved in a joint peacebuilding process with the Islamic Community.

The Democratization Process in Turkey: Theory, Legacy, and Prospects

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:37:00 GMT

In one of his articles on the requirements of large-scale democracy and political institutions, Robert A. Dahl warns students of political science by stating, “in ordinary language, we use the word democracy to refer both to a goal or ideal and to an actuality that is only a partial attainment of the goal.” A practical use of this notice in scholarly analyses is to start with the postulate that, “every actual democracy has fallen short of democratic criteria.” Amongst others, Turkish democracy, in this sense, is not exceptional in failing to meet the entangled criteria of actual, and ideal democracy.

Why Did Europe Conquer The World?

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:36:00 GMT

As its name suggests, this is a book that attempts to answer one of the greatest historical puzzles of all times: Why did a couple of Western European states conquer the world? It is indeed a stunning fact that Western Europe, which was an unenviable backwater of the world in the early Middle Ages, ended up gaining “control of 84 percent of the globe” (p. 2). Judging by Figure 1.1 in this book, Turkey, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, China and Thailand may be the only countries in the world that were never under direct European control, if we take into account the British-French takeover of the remaining Arab regions after World War 1 and the American occupation of Japan and Korea after World War 2.

The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How They Made the Modern World

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:35:00 GMT

The Shape of the New consists of two parts, seven chapters and a conclusion. The subtitle, “Four Big Ideas and How they Made the Modern World” refers to Montgomery and Chirot’s belief that modern institutions and political systems are created and shaped according to the thoughts of the important thinkers. The authors claim that the history of the twentieth century is founded on the ideas of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin and the founders of American democracy. The impacts of these thinkers have continued in the twenty-first century. The authors, in this book, follow a different method in writing intellectual history.

On the State: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1989-1992

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:34:00 GMT

The book is a compilation of lectures Bourdieu delivered at the Collège de France between the years 1989 and 1992. Running the risk of missing out on the aural attributes of the lectures, the editors, instead of merely transcribing them, have revised, with complete fidelity to the author, the spoken discourse toward producing a ‘complete readable text’ for the readers. Besides Bourdieu’s erudition, this book, as it stands now –with a profusion of very relevant cross-references and annotations– reflects an exemplary work of editorship.

Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:33:00 GMT

Furthermore, while Central Asia’s urban centers were, as Starr illustrates, already occupied with science to a certain degree, it was not until after the Arab conquests that it started to boom. Saying that these lands were open to new ideas is not enough to explain the sudden burgeoning into an actual movement, a movement that stretched from Andalusia to the borders of China. While many of the great thinkers of this Golden Age were indeed from Central Asia, one must not forget that a great many other were not. Many places that were once devoid of science, became its biggest centers. Completely separating this movement from Islamic/pious motives would be a grave injustice indeed.

Global Climate Change, Environment and Energy: Global Challenges and Opportunities to Global Stability

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:32:00 GMT

The book analyzes environmental issues under three main chapters. The first chapter discusses the issues of global climate, environment and energy with respect to global challenges and opportunities for stability. The articles in this chapter focus on security to which global climate change can be seen as a contemporary threat (article 1 by Katman herself). The second article discusses the paradigm shift in Millennium Development Goals, where the consideration of science as a basic principle is suggested as the most important component, and the responsibilities of the public and private sectors should be balanced. It is also important to note that acceptance and awareness of environmental problems in society are key factors, and that bottom-up, not top-down management style is important to achieve environmental goals. For sustainable development and environment protection, the participation of local actors are crucial to making legal regulations more useful and successful.

Migration, Ethics & Power: Spaces of Hospitality in International Politics

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:31:00 GMT

The author starts by giving important clues about how hospitality should be structured for victims escaping from massacre, and ethical ways of providing space to those who are able to cross a border and seek asylum. Hotel Rwanda and Welcome to Sarajevo are two well chosen films to advise those countries that have an immense capacity and resources to host a significant number of guests who would otherwise face violence in their home countries, and to expose the hypocracy of refusals to provide space to these people while paying lip service to hospitality as an ethical good. Lack of hospitality is a very acute problem in today’s world, and it will keep expanding if not confronted. While discussing the third movie mentioned in the book, Ararat, the author unilaterally looks at the genocide picture from the Armenians’ point of view; this section would be stronger if Bulley had paid more attention to the broader perspective of both Turks and Armenians involved in the conflict.

Engineers of Jihad: The Curious Connection Between Violent Extremism and Education

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:30:00 GMT

When we look at important aspects of the book, Gambetta and Hertog’s contribution to the theorization and conceptualization of radicalization stands out, particularly in their study of relative deprivation, and the need for closure and in/out group distinction, all of which play an important, determinant role in understanding the relationship between education and radicalism. While Gambetta and Hertog rely on their own sociologist point of view, they seek a different perspective to social newtwork/milleu analysis in the radicalization studies. The book also successfully shows the structural dynamics of different violent, ideological extremist groups, for example, from the women-to-man distribution ratio, to the contrasts among educational disciplines such as medicine, social sciences, and humanities and the law, in three radical-extremist groups.

From Deep State to Islamic State: The Arab Counter-Revolution and Its Jihadi Legacy

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:29:00 GMT

The author begins by analyzing the deep state, which as a term originates from near Turkish political history and is usually composed of high-level elements within intelligence services, the military, internal security, the judiciary, and the mafia. Structures of deep state in the region provide the real reason for the spread of jihadi groups like al-Qaida and ISIS. For instance, according to Filiu, the political and social structure of Egypt before the Arab Spring prepared the appropriate environment for Hosni Mubarak to take over the country after Enver Sadat was assassinated. When the popular revolts offered a key democratization prospect in 2011, the Egyptian deep state helped strangle it in another coup d’état by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (pp. 54-55).

The Circassian: A Life of Esref Bey, Late Ottoman Insurgent and Special Agent

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:28:00 GMT

The Circassian is a successful attempt in two ways. Firstly, Fortna’s chronological design of the account allows the reader to follow Eşref’s different activities step by step. Each chapter covers a mission, a war, or a specific case. This helps the author to create a holistic account. The book is informed by Fortna’s detailed knowledge of the context and the world around his subject. The second strength comes from Fortna’s management of an array of sources, which include the diary of Pervin (Eşref’s second wife), archival material from several countries, personal letters, travel accounts, encrypted telegrams, and secondary literature. The author is scrupulous in his use of primary sources.

How to Choose a Leader: Machiavelli’s Advice to Citizens

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:27:00 GMT

One of Viroli’s aims is to refute the common perception that Machiavelli was a ‘teacher of evil’ who knew nothing about democracy or liberty. The author argues that Machiavelli, who he often refers to as ‘Our Counselor,’ was in fact a political thinker who was honest, believed in the principles of liberty and the common good, and who sincerely loved his country. Viroli divides the book into twenty lessons, each lesson presented as a chapter on its own.