The Hizmet Movement as a softpower tool in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: between foreign policy and domestic politics This presentation is an attempt to understand the articulation and interdependency existing between soft power and domestic politics. Our main hypothesis is that important interdependency links exist between domestic policies implemented on the state’s own territory and the soft power’s policy, especially in a context of strong transnational dynamics. In order to verify this hypothesis, we will study the role played by the Hizmet movement, and more specifically by the Fezalar schools, in the shaping of Turkish foreign policy towards the Autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Indeed the evolution of Turkish foreign policy towards Iraqi Kurdistan determines the implantation of the

The Majors Assets for Turkish Foreign Policy in the Caucasus: The question of “background” This paper aims to examine the relevance of the soft power concept for interpretation of Turkey’s foreign policy towards one of its neighboring region. The unpredictable disintegration of the Soviet Union put Turkey in front of a new regional strategic context. Criticized at the same period in the west for the lack of democracy and for the human rights abuses, Turkish political system became paradoxically an attraction, “a source of inspiration to imitate” or a model for this new geopolitical environment. Analyze the impact of the Turkish political values in the region allow us to suppose that it did not constitute an enormous asset for its

Regional Ties within an Emerging Art Market Area: Positioning Istanbul as a Hub The objective of this paper is to analyze Istanbul art world’s recent positioning as a point of attraction for neighboring countries’ art scenes, in the context of the debate on Turkey’s soft power. Drawing on critiques made on Nye’s concept, this paper takes the focus out of state actors and of tools promoting national interests abroad. Instead, it emphasizes urban elites’ role in promoting their city’s international attractiveness and complex regional independencies resulting from complementarities and competition among neighboring cities. The emergence of new artistic polarities in Gulf cities in the years 2000 has pushed Istanbul art scene to develop ties with the Middle East, in order

The African student’s migration in Turkey : a Challenge for the Gülen Movement Our paper will try to reintegrate the complexity of realities beyond the often vague concept of Soft Power. In this paper, we argue that the concept of Soft Power if it can be considered as a “category of practice” (used by actors in everyday settings to make sense of themselves, of their activities, of what they share with, and how they differ from, others) can not be accepted as a “category of analysis” (the ‘experience-distant categories used by social analysts’ in an academic context) . In order to do so, we will focus on a Turkish private actor’s strategy of influence: the Gülen Movement. Here we will

An illusionary ‘power of seduction’: an assessment of Turkey’s soft power capacity in the Arab World This paper aims at exploring Turkey’s soft power capacity in the Arab world/Middle East region. The author first focuses on the concept of soft power as perceived and understood by Turkish policy-makers: through an in-depth analysis of the public discourse of key officials (Gül, Erdoğan, Davutoğlu) and the theoretical works of A. Davutoğlu (specifically his book “Strategic Depth”), the author explains the vision Turkey has of its role and soft power capacity in the world. Having discussed the theoretical framework, the author will then examine the implementation of Turkey’s soft power in the region. In particular, the paper will analyze three specific instruments used