Description
The studies focusing on ontological security mainly assume that the states do not only seek physical security but also ontological security through routines and habits in a similar way with the individuals. As Mitzen claims, states acquire ontological security through routinized relations with significant others in which their identities are anchored. The picture gets even more complicated when it is the Turkish foreign policy in question. Starting from the early years of the Republic, Turkey’s ensuing sense of ontological insecurity has stigmatized the predominant geopolitical discourse in the country as regards her relations with Europe as well as with various international actors such as Russia and the United States. As a latecomer to the modern state system, Turkey became extra-sensitive to concerns regarding belonging, recognition, and status, which shaped its identity and foreign policy. This paper looks at the ambivalent relationship between Turkish foreign policy and ontological (in) security debates. By periodising the Turkish foreign policy in line with the ontological (in) security modalities it had employed and conceptualising the relationship between foreign policy decisions and elite narratives drawing on ontological security considerations, we will aim to uncover the relevance of the ontological security conceptual framework for Turkish foreign policy. This endeavour will also introduce a critical engagement with the ontological security conceptual framework which fails to address the complex relation between the domestic and international
