Türkiye-China relations revisited: a neo-Gramscian perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT A considerable number of studies have attempted to analyse changes in Turkish foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party administration. These changes triggered the debate about whether Turkish foreign policy shifted its Western orientation. Departing from rising anti-West rhetoric in Turkish foreign policy, this study sets out to explain the recent rapprochement between Türkiye and the People’s Republic of China. From a critical perspective, it proposed a new way of viewing Türkiye’s relations with China as a counter-hegemonic rapprochement reshaped by internal/external dynamics in the post-western world order. Consequently, it shows which ideas, material capabilities, and institutions have played roles in the Erdogan administration’s challenge to Western hegemony by utilizing relations with China.