Popular Culture and Foreign Policy: The Case of Turkey and Valley of the Wolves Ambush

This book argues that, as a popular text, the Turkish television series Valley of the Wolves: Ambush functions as a site for consent production for foreign policies formed by the AKP within the last decade, through a process of reproduction of state identities, ideologies, and discourses at the level of narrative. This book positions its argument in two fields: Turkish Foreign Policy (TFP) studies and Popular Culture and World Politics within the larger International Relations context. It is interdisciplinary in nature as it also makes use of theories around popular culture. It advances works within these fields by focusing on a particular national context and offer an original analysis on Turkey. While doing so, it employs discourse analysis. It also teases out some of the complexities of the nature and implications of representation of the TFP by using critical reception. Together with an analysis of the critical reception of the television series, political discourses around foreign policy is examined in line with the ways in which these policies are depicted and reproduced by the series. This leads to an intertextual reading of Turkish state identity and security imaginary and a critical examination of the TFP in the last decade from a Constructivist perspective. POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND FILM Advisory Board Recent Titles Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER OUTLINE Theoretical Framework CONSTRUCTIVISM The Role of Identities in Constructivist IR Theory Domestic Identities and National Interests Articulation of the Meaning and Interpellation of the Subject Identities POPULAR CULTURE AND IR GRAMSCI AND POPULAR CULTURE Gramsci in IR Theory CONCLUSION NOTES Historical Background of Turkish Politics GRAMSCI AND TURKISH POLITICS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF POLITICS IN TURKEY Kemalist Hegemony History of the Rise of Political Islam Before the 1980s Rise of Political Islam in Turkish Politics Since 1980 and the AKP POPULAR CULTURE AND POLITICS CONCLUSION The Security Imaginary in the Era of the AKP THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE TFP IN THE AKP ERA The Main Tenets of the TFP SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM IN IR IN THE CASE OF TFP IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY THE AKP’S SECURITY IMAGINARY AND TURKISH STATE IDENTITY Political Islam in the TFP The Security Imaginary of the AKP THREE FEATURES OF THE STATE IDENTITY CREATED BY THE AKP Turkey as the Leader of the Middle East The Defender of the Oppressed in the Middle East Self-Confident Turkey CONCLUSION NOTES Series Overview Overview of Seasons 7 and 8 INTERTEXTUALITY ANALYSIS OF THE SERIES Information Ideology Articulation Interpellation CONCLUSION NOTES VoW: Ambush and the Representation of Turkey as the Leader of the Middle East IDEOLOGY AND LEADERSHIP ARTICULATING THE “LEADER OF THE MIDDLE EAST” INTERPELLATION TO THE LEADER OF THE MIDDLE EAST CONCLUSION NOTE VoW: Ambush and the Representation of Turkey as the Defender of the Oppressed IDEOLOGY AND THE “DEFENDER OF THE OPPRESSED” ARTICULATING THE “DEFENDER OF THE OPPRESSED” INTERPELLATION TO THE “DEFENDER OF THE OPPRESSED” CONCLUSION IDEOLOGY AND “SELF-CONFIDENT TURKEY” ARTICULATING “SELF-CONFIDENT TURKEY” INTERPELLATION TO “SELF-CONFIDENT TURKEY” CONCLUSION NOTES Conclusion NOTES Bibliography Index About the Author This book argues that, as a popular text, Valley of the Wolves: Ambush functions as a site for consent production for foreign policies formed by the AKP within the last decade, through a process of reproduction of state identities, ideologies, and discourses at the level of narrative. This book positions its argument in two fields: Turkish Foreign Policy (TFP) studies and Popular Culture and World Politics within the larger International Relations context. It is interdisciplinary in nature as it also make use of theories around popular culture. It advances works within these fields by focusing on a particular national context and offer an original analysis on Turkey. While doing so, it employs discourse analysis. It also teases out some of the complexities of the nature and implications of representation of the TFP by using critical reception. Together with an analysis of the critical reception of the television series, political discourses around foreign policy are examined in line with the ways in which these policies are depicted and reproduced by the series. This leads to an intertextual reading of Turkish state identity and security imaginary and a critical examination of the TFP in the last decade from a Constructivist perspective. "Popular Culture and Foreign Policy: The Case of Turkey and the Valley of the Wolves: Ambush analyzes Turkish Foreign Policy from an interdisciplinary perspective. It seeks to understand and discuss how foreign policy discourses can be reproduced by a popular television series and consequently produce consent for certain foreign policies"-- Provided by publisher