[ecrea] cfp: Turkey and the Middle East: Axis Shifting or Re-tuning?

Turkey and the Middle East:  Axis Shifting or Re-tuning?


Themed issue of the Middle East Journal of
Culture and Communication



Issue Editor:  Dr. Burcu Sümer (Ankara University)


In recent years, Turkey has been willingly playing a very active
role in the Middle East by establishing closer links with Iran, Iraq
and Syria, contributing to Afghanistan and Lebanon based international 
forces with
its military power and acting as the mediator between Arab and Israeli
sides.  Under the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) leadership, Turkey's
recent activism in the region marks a clear departure from its long standing
foreign policy rooted in its republican history urging Turkey to turn 
its face to West not
East. Therefore, the AKP government's increasing interest in Middle East
affairs sharpens controversies between the secular fractions believing that
this is another form of Islamisation adopted by the AKP that will end 
Turkey's
aspiration for the EU membership and the conservative fractions seeing 
this aspiration
as nothing but an illusion. However, what is clear is that Turkey's 
increasing
activism in the Middle East can only be understood once we distance 
ourselves
from this discursive polarisation and focus more on two key factors shaping
Turkish foreign policy in recent years: changes in Turkey's approach towards
the Kurdish question in the context of rebuilding governance in Iraq and the
so-called 'neo-Ottomanism' favoured by the AKP government encouraging 
further
political engagement with the countries of not only Middle East but also 
with
Balkans and North Africa with the aim of making Turkey become an 
indispensable
international actor in the eye of its Western allies.



Within this framework, papers are solicited for a themed issue of the 
Middle East Journal of Culture and
Communication on " Turkey and Middle East:  Axis Shifting or 
Re-tuning?". The
purpose of this themed issue is to further investigate the underpinning 
aspects
of Turkey's intensifying political leadership aspiration in the Middle 
East in
relation to its past, current and possible future social as well as 
cultural affairs
with the countries of the region. This issue aims at understanding 
Turkey-Middle
East relations by questioning the recent dynamics with a particular focus on
issues of culture and society in both sides.


This themed issue seeks answers to questions such as:


1.  What strategies does Turkey employ to increase its 'soft power'
(political, cultural, economic and diplomatic influence) in the Middle East?

2. How are Turkey's discourses
of public diplomacy and 'soft power' discussed in media in Turkey and/or 
the Middle
East?

3. What is the impact of Turkey's self-positioning in the Middle East
amongst audiences in Turkey and/or the Middle East?

4. How can we analytically reflect the current relations between Turkey 
and the Middle East
in the area of societal and cultural exchanges?

Scholars from a wide variety of disciplines including geography, 
international relations, media and communication studies, cultural 
studies, memory studies, gender studies, sociology, history, 
anthropology, archaeology, and politics are
invited to present innovative responses to those questions in the form 
of full length articles, shorter reflective essays and critical reviews.


Deadline for submission of
proposals:                                                                                                    
11 April 2011

Notification of acceptance of 
proposals:                                                              
June 2011

Deadline for submission of manuscripts for accepted 
proposals:             16 January 2012

Expected publication date of accepted 
articles:                                                June 2012


Proposals for articles and reflective essays should be about 500-600 
words in length. They must clearly describe the proposed approach, and 
explain the contribution that would be made to the themed issue.


Articles should be 6000-7000 words long and include an abstract of not 
more than 150 words that clearly defines the nature of the article. 
Reflective essays should be 1500-3000 words and reviews 1000-1500 words. 
Up to five keywords should be included to identify articles and 
reflective essays.


Please email the proposal to Dr. Burcu Sümer, co-editor of Middle East 
Journal of Culture and Communication: (Burcu.Sumer /at/ media.ankara.edu.tr)
or (burcus /at/ gmail.com)


Please note that all articles will be subject to our peer review process 
and that the

Editors retain the discretion at all stages of the publication process to
accept or reject an article.


MEJCC is a peer-reviewed journal published by Brill:

http://www.brill.nl/mjcc