Protector, Partner, Powerbroker: Turkey's Smart Power in the Arab Region Post-2011

Abstract

Abstract

This thesis examines how Turkey sought to reconfigure its role in the Arab world in ten years that followed the Arab Uprisings through the deployment of 'smart power', the strategic fusion of military, economic, diplomatic, and identity-based resources. Moving beyond conventional analyses that focus on Ankara's hard power interventions or soft power branding alone, the thesis argues that Turkey's regional strategy is best understood as an adaptive, narrative driven project shaped by domestic politics, regime legitimacy, and shifting regional alignments after the Uprisings. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of primary sources, including Turkish foreign ministry statements, speeches by President Erdogan, policy documents, media outputs, and regional surveys, the study identifies how Turkey constructed different identity roles and threat discourses to justify and operationalise its engagement across the region.

Four case studies illustrate the variations and limits of Turkey's smart power: Palestine, Libya, Syria and Iraq, and the GCC or Arabian Peninsula. The Palestine case demonstrates how Ankara mobilises religious identity and protector narratives to project moral authority and claim leadership of the post-Ottoman space. The Libya case highlights Turkey's use of coercive military technological capacity alongside diplomatic initiatives to influence post-conflict outcomes. In Syria and Iraq, threat politics surrounding Kurdish autonomy and refugee flows drive a predominantly security centred strategy. Finally, in the Gulf, economic vulnerability and regional isolation push Ankara towards pragmatic normalisation and securitisation of economic interdependence.

Through these cases, the thesis argues that Turkey's smart power is neither consistent nor uniformly effective. Rather, it is contingent, relational, and deeply shaped by narrative framing. Understanding this interplay between identity, discourse, and power provides a more coherent explanation of Turkey's evolving regional posture and its aspirations for influence in the Arab world. Show more