Is Care Instrumentalised for Power? Turkish Discourses on UN Peacekeeping Operations in Africa

Turkey`s participation to the UN Peacekeeping has been rather limited compared to some other developing countries. Several studies investigated the reasons and also trends in the Turkish behavior towards the UN Peacekeeping. This study will shed light into the discursive constructions of the UN Peacekeeping operation in the Sub-Saharan Africa. In the recent years, Turkish governments took slightly a more active position and a more clear side towards the conflicts in the Sub-Sahara. This is partly due to the AKP`s identity and its mission statements for an autonomous and active foreign policy. But also due to the emerging consensus in the majority of the society about the importance of the Peacekeeping and ‘helping’ people abroad as a ‘status’ symbol. Keeping these in mind, in this study the author wants to investigate the discourses of state`s role in the international affairs and its support (or lack thereof) for peacekeeping operations. This research will open the black box in this sense and analyse two levels: the political speeches of the foreign policy elite from the government and the Turkish Parliament where different political parties and positions are represented. In the former level, justifications for joining or not joining to the Peacekeeping operations will be examined and analysed. The second level will help us understand the political taking place in the Parliament. Most importantly, it will give us clues about the points of contestations and agreements between the government and the opposition parties. These points will be evaluated by taking a post-structuralist position: How are identities constructed discursively? How does ‘state’ perceive itself and wants to be perceived by Others? What are the roles of power relations within the state apparatus but also between the state and the outside Other? How is Turkey imagined in these debates/discourses? How is Sub-Saharan Africa imagined and represented in these debates? How is the UN Peacekeeping referred to? What is the role of dichotomies such as ‘us’ and ‘them’ in making a peace operation possible or impossible? What are the roles of norms and/or interests in these discourses about the Peacekeeping in particular, sending soldiers abroad in general? In conclusion, this study will highlight and analyse the dominant discursive elements in the UN peacekeeping and Sub-Saharan Africa that might influence (and be influenced by) a broader discourse about the Turkish foreign policy and the national identity.