PhD Students - Defne Gunay
Details
email : d.gunay@sheffield.ac.uk
Thesis Title: Europeanisation of Turkish Foreign Policy toward the Middle East
Start Year: 2008
Supervisors
Research Topic
Recently, there have been changes in Turkish foreign policy that represent a clear divergence from the deeply-established foreign policy principles of Turkey. Current foreign policy of Turkey seems more or less in line with European foreign policy norms. As a result Turkey pursues a multilateral and constructive policy towards its Middle Eastern neighbours. This thesis analyzes the extent to which this change is driven by Turkey´s EU process.
There is a vast literature analysing how Turkish foreign policy towards the Cyprus dispute and Greece has been Europeanised since Turkey´s elevation to candidacy status, which led to a break in Turkey´s path dependency in foreign policymaking. However there is a lack of studies analysing the extent of the Europeanisation in Turkey´s foreign policy towards other regions such as the Middle East. I propose to undertake this research to assess the validity of Europeanisation argument in explaining the shift in Turkey´s policies towards its Middle Eastern neighbours.
Work Experience
- Associate tutor, University of Sheffield, Department of Politics:
- POL206: The Politics and Government of the European Union (module tutor, 2008-2010).
- POL111: The Politics of Globalisation (module tutor, 2008-2010).
- POL107: Globalisation of World Politics (module tutor, 2007)
Office Hour: Friday 13:00-14:00 (Room 1.41)
- Teaching assistant, MEMA (Master of Euro-Mediterranean Affairs), General Track, June-September 2006, Terni, Italy. Provided teaching assistance to the professors. Worked as the interface among students, professors, the management unit in Florence and the host institution and coordinated their work.
- Research Assistant, Department of International Relations, Bilkent University, 2004-2007, Ankara, Turkey.
- Research assistant for Euroethos project financed by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Porgramme (2007-2008 academic year). Conducted research on Turkey as part of a comparative investigation of religious and secular ethically-derived requests for exemption from the law in an enlarging Europe.
Conference papers
- Paper entitled “Europeanisation: A Critical Realist Perspective,” co-authored with Ian Bache and Simon Bulmer was presented at a workshop on ‘Establishing Causality in Europeanisation Research,’ University of Exeter, Exeter, UK, 20 September 2010.
- Paper entitled “The EU Immpact on Turkish Foreign Policy towards the Middle East,” was presented at the UACES Conference: Exchanging Ideas on Europe: Europe at a Crossroads, College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium, 7 September 2010.
- Paper entitled “Europeanisation and Turkish Foreign Policy towards the Middle East: Actors and Reasons” was presented at the 3rd ECPR Graduate Conference, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland, 30 August 2010.
- Paper entitled “Europeanization of Turkish Foreign Policy toward the Middle East” was presented in Strengthening and Integrating Academic Networks (SiNAN) 2nd PhD School on EU’s external relations, October 2009, Ankara, Turkey.
- Participated in the “Model European Union” organized by AEGEE Ankara. Swedish policy position concerning the US operation in Iraq was presented, Middle East Technical University, May 2003, Ankara, Turkey.
Book reviews
- '“The Crescent of Crisis: US-European Strategy for the Greater Middle East” by Ivo Daalder, Nicole Gnesotto and Philip Gordon (eds.)' Political Studies Review 7(3), 2009, p.383.
Other Work
- First Year Politics Postgraduate Departmental Representative (2008-09).
Research Training Group / Research Cluster membership
- International Institutions & International Policy Co-ordination (2010)
- Transformation of the State (2010)
- Public Policy and Governance (2007-2008)
- International Relations (2008-2009)
Previous Education
- The University of Sheffield, Department of Politics, PhD.
- The University of Sheffield, Department of Politics, MPhil.
- Bilkent University, Department of International Relations, M.A.
- Bilkent University, Department of Political Science, B.A.