Cultural Variables in Foreign Policy: Ismail Cem and Ahmet Davutoglu

Abstract

Ismail Cem and Ahmet Davutoglu are two important ministers of foreign affairs who have played important roles in shaping Post-Cold War era Turkish foreign policy. This study aims to analyze the theoretical perspectives through which these two politically and personally different ministers understood foreign affairs, and in particular aims to tackle the different importance they accord to cultural variables in foreign policy making. This study claims that in a scale ranging from the pure realist to the pure utopian as depicted by E. H. Carr, Ismail Cem should be posited closer to the realist end while Ahmet Davutoglu should be posited doser to the utopian one.