When Can Idea Entrepreneurs Influence Foreign Policy? Explaining the Rise of the “Turkic World” in Turkish Foreign Policy

Abstract

This study aims to shift the focus of scholarship on ideas and foreign policy from its overwhelming concern with domestic structures and institutional setup toward a greater awareness of the importance of changing national identity conceptions. I argue that Turkey’s foreign policy toward the post-Soviet Turkic Eurasia has been influenced by an ideational factor—the idea of the “Turkic World.” Advocated by nonstate actors, “Turkic World” was rapidly internalized by a wide range of political actors in Turkey in the 1990s. Despite the eventual fading of the geopolitical importance of the region for Turkey and the rise to power of a political party with Islamist roots, the idea has gained a “taken for granted” status in Turkey’s foreign policy interests and practices. I argue that idea entrepreneurs can influence foreign policy when two conditions are met: first, when a critical juncture prompts decision makers to search for a new foreign policy framework and second, when the evolving national identity conceptions of the ruling elite overlap with the general premise of the idea entrepreneurs’ proposals. In this case, “Turkic World” has not only provided Turkish decision makers with a pragmatic foreign policy course but also spoken to their changing “worldviews.”