Türkiye’nin Afrika Açılımı: Neoklasik Realist Bir Değerlendirme
Türkiye’s Africa Initiative: A Neoclassical Realist Assessment

Summary/Abstract: New tendencies have emerged in the Turkish foreign policy with the increasing prominence of regional approaches. In this context, Türkiye’s developing relations with African countries have begun to be discussed as symbolizing an opening. In neoclassical realism, by combining classical realism and neorealism, it is emphasized that foreign policy approaches of states are shaped not only by international system but also by internal politics. In this article, Türkiye’s initiative process towards Africa is selected as a case study and foreign policy analysis is conducted using neoclassical realism theory. While the international environment/system is accepted as the independent variable, internal politics is considered the intervening variables, and the foreign policy approach towards Africa is regarded as the dependent variable. The main argument of the article is that the transformation of the international system in the 21st century has affected the Turkish foreign policy, along this axis a relationship can be established between Türkiye’s internal political processes and foreign policy. As the dataset of the article, election manifestos and government programs covering the period between 2002 and 2024 are taken as the basis, the qualitative and quantitative change of the expressions contained in the documents in question are analyzed through the use of the MAXQDA software program. The primary aim of this article is to determine, through a content analysis of the given dataset, which themes have predominantly shaped the development of Türkiye’s Africa Initiative and to what extent they have been utilized.

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