Networks of influence: reconceptualising soft power
This paper aims to analyse one particularly effective facet of Turkey’s soft power approach. However, soft power is not defined, nor conceptualized, as it was originally conceived of by Nye – rather, by integrating literature from network analysis, I will highlight the ways in which successful use of different networks (in this case by Turkey) can have a profound effect in expanding a country’s foreign policy choices. This paper argues it is crucial that soft power is conceptualized in more nuanced ways, rather than simply referring to a states’ norms and values, media or other reified phenomena. Soft power is about very concrete material forces that a state has at its disposal. Networks are such assets and remain distinct from ‘hard power’ resources a state can deploy to increase its power and prestigious, such as military and coercive economic policies. By way of a comparative analysis of the types of networks used by Turkey in Kosovo and Northern Iraq (Kurdistan Regional Government) – primarily business and religious – this paper will both show the limits of adopting Nye’s conception of soft power, while at the same time offering some useful starting points for a proper integration of the concept of ‘soft power’ into IR.