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*Call for Papers* - Contentious Politics and Diverging Interests of American-Turkish Relations - International Studies Association 2012 Annual Meetings - April 1-4 - San Diego, CA
| Location: | California, United States |
| Call for Papers Date: | 2011-05-25 (Archive) |
| Date Submitted: |
2011-05-16 |
| Announcement ID: |
185255 |
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Call for Papers – International Studies Association 2012, April 1-4. San Diego, CA
(Tentative) Session/Panel Title:
Contentious Politics and Diverging Interests of American-Turkish Relations
Organizers: Joshua Hendrick (Loyola University of Maryland)
Tugrul Keskin (Portland State University)
Dear all,
We are in the process of organizing a panel for the 2012 International Studies Association annual meetings in San Diego, CA, April 1-4. The tentative title is Contentious Politics and Diverging Interests of American-Turkish Relations. We hope to organize a panel that addresses the rather simplistic but common assertion (in both Turkey and the US) that American-Turkish relations are suffering from a slow increase in tension and mutual mistrust based on their currently diverging interests. Notwithstanding, it is our belief that as scholars we must seriously consider the findings of an annual Pew Research Poll that focuses on international perceptions of the US in general, which found that between 2002 and 2010, no more than 30 percent of the Turkish population reported that they had “favorable” views of their US allies. This number reached an all-time low of 9 percent in 2007, only to climb back to 17 percent in 2010. The multifaceted political relationship between the US and Turkey began in the late 1940s with the increasing social conservativism trend in Turkey, at the time when the Democrat Party came to power. On the American side, the US created a program of military exchange with the Turkish Military in the early 1950s. In early 1960, the US created the Peace Corps and Fulbright programs, and Turkey was one of the most important destinations for American scholars and Peace Corps volunteers. This trend of increased American involvement in Turkish domestic and foreign policy has shaped the approach of the Turkish elite, including military and political circles; towards one which leans more towards American interests, rather than Turkish nation-state based interests. However, this strategic “alliance” is starting to crumble, as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and due to changes in US national security interests and activities following September 11th.
At the same time, however, we also think that it is important to discuss the fact that the middle of the 1990s was also a time period when more Turks came to the US to study, work, and travel than ever before, and when the US Fulbright Program to Turkey expanded to become the largest and most well-funded country program of its kind for US students, teachers, and professors to visit a foreign country for the purposes of cultural exchange. Indeed, as the world’s 17th largest economy, as representing one of the world’s most powerful collection of armed forces, and as a national culture that is increasingly more determined to reclaim its influence as a global force, this panel is founded upon the thesis that not since the 17th century has the reach of Turkish production, Turkish culture, and Turkish diplomacy extended as far, and had as much of an impact, as it does today.
The organizers of this panel are interested in bringing together a multidisciplinary selection of conference papers that seek to address how Turkey’s 21st emergence as an economically powerful, politically stable, militarily mighty, and culturally ambitious nation affects one or more aspects of Turkey’s relationship with the US (i.e., political, civil-social, economic, and/or cultural). We are particularly interested in papers that pay careful attention to on the ground politics in the rapidly changing Turkish context.
Possible areas of research and study include, but are not limited to, the following:
· The historical formation of the US-Turkey relations
· The historical formation of the American-Turkish military relations
· Influence of the Peace Corps and Fulbright programs on US-Turkey relations
· Influence of NED, NDI, IRI, and other US institutions on Turkish Domestic politics
· Transformations between “old” and “new” economic ties (i.e., actors, processes, institutions)
· The “Turkish lobby” in the US (old v. new)
· The “Israel-factor” in US-Turkey Relations
· The “Armenian factor” in US-Turkey Relations
· The “Kurdish factor” in US-Turkey Relations
· The “Global War on Terror” and US-Turkey Relations
· The rise of AKP - how the policies of “strategic depth” affect US-Turkey relations
· Turks in the US, Americans in Turkey: Intercultural exchange, cross-cultural (mis) understanding
Please send 250-300 word abstracts and a short one paragraph bio to Tugrul Keskin (tugrulkeskin@pdx.edu) and Joshua Hendrick (hendrick@uoregon.edu)
Deadline: May 25, 2011
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Joshua D. Hendrick, Department of Sociology, Loyola University of Maryland - Email: hendrick@uoregon.edu
Tugrul Keskin, Department of International Studies, Portland State University - Email: tugrulkeskin@pdx.edu
Email: hendrick@uoregon.edu
Visit the website at http://www.pdx.edu/sociologyofislam/
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