Turkey’s Regional Approach in Afghanistan: A Civilian Power in Action (original) (raw)
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Special Issue on Turkish Foreign Policy
New Perspectives on Turkey, 2009
CONTENTS - NEW PERSPECTIVES ON TURKEY, VOLUME 40 Editors’ Intro.: Special issue on Turkish Foreign Policy by Mustafa Aydın & Kemal Kirişci Globalization, modernity and democracy: In search of a viable domestic polity for a sustainable Turkish foreign policy - E. Fuat Keyman The transformation of Turkish foreign policy: The rise of the trading state - Kemal Kirişçi Public choice and foreign affairs: Democracy and international relations in Turkey - Ersin Kalaycıoğlu Facing its Waterloo in diplomacy: Turkey's military in the foreign policy-making process - Gencer Özcan Securing Turkey through western-oriented foreign policy - Pınar Bilgin Reconstructing Turkish-American relations: Divergences versus convergences - Mustafa Aydın The role of temporality and interaction in the Turkey-EU relationship - Atila Eralp Worldviews and Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East - Meliha Benli Altunışık Turkey and Eurasia: Frontiers of a new geographic imagination - Bülent Aras and Hakan Fidan Multiplying vectors: A framework for maximizing Turkey's freedom in formulating and implementing foreign policy - İlter Turan Turkish foreign policy: Limits of engagement - Ahmet O. Evin
The Historical Relationship between Afghanistan and Turkey vis-a-vis Modernization
In the first three decades of the twentieth century, Afghanistan emerged from isolation and inaugurated a formative period of modernization. In tandem with this development, the country became a unique space for the grand Muslim experiment of reform called tajaddud or renewal. As a multiplicity of transnational and ideological investors descended on Afghanistan to implement their particular brand of reformism, it was ultimately the historical experience of Ottoman Turkish modernism that shaped the course of Afghan development. Prior to this period, Afghanistan was largely cut off from the outside world and the only external influence permeating the country emanated from British India. The beginning of modernization in Afghanistan altered this pattern as Ottoman technocrats were invited by Afghan leaders to guide state sponsored reforms. By the same token, Afghanistan was viewed by Turkish reformers as an ideal and pristine laboratory in which their vision of modernism could be extended beyond the borders of the Sublime Porte. This paper focuses on the historical relationship between Afghanistan and Turkey vis-à-vis modernization. First, it traces the roots of how the model of Ottoman modernism became an archetype for Afghanistan beginning in the late nineteenth century. Second, it depicts the scope of Ottoman and post-Ottoman Turkish technical assistance in a number of key sectors in the early decades of the twentieth century. Third, it highlights the considerable and long lasting influence of Turkish military training in the genesis of the modern Afghan army. Finally, it asserts that in contrast to the prevailing historical trajectory of Afghanistan as a country often ensnared by predatory neighbors and meddlesome regional interventions, Turkish promotion of Afghan developmentalism during a constructive phase in the country's history presents a distinctive and positive diversion from a narrative dominated by foreign aggression.
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