DWW's humanitarian space in Turkish foreign policy

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1649725 (Table of Contents)

1990’s were the rising decade for constructivism in the field of international relations. During this time, realism started to lose its significance against constructivism. Also, norms, traditions and cultures started to be on the frontline rather than security, state interests and power. This trend was there for theorists as well as for decision-makers and policy-makers. As a result of the rising constructivism, a critical perspective for critical geopolitics secured its part in the literature. Critical geopolitics’ dynamic situation analysis is more preferable for policy-makers than classical geopolitics because it is not bound to strict rules and assumptions. This emerging critical perspective of geopolitics resulted in four types of new branches. These are formal, popular, structural and practical geopolitics. Each branch explains a different part of the world politics, and states are using them to create a better perspective for the system of international relations. In this thesis, I would like to argue that the humanitarian space also emerged as a new branch of critical geopolitics in the literature, besides the other four that have been mentioned. After the failure of humanitarian interventions of 1990’s, humanitarian space was created as a new type of critical geopolitics. With it, states were able to create different approaches to the humanitarian issues. Turkish foreign policy was also transformed in the twenty first century. Its transformation was from a status quo type of structure to a dynamic structure. This dynamic structure resulted in the establishment of different types of institutions in Turkey, like the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), Yunus Emre Foundation (YEF), Turks Abroad and Related Communities (TARC) and other Turkish Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Doctors Worldwide (DWW) is one of these NGOs, also active in Turkey, which specializes on health. It is providing humanitarian aid for the least developed countries, especially to the countries in the African continent. Within a decade, DWW Turkey became one of the most active branches of DWW in the world. It was able to generate a significant amount of aid, and was able to develop projects in line with the Turkish foreign policy. In this thesis, activities of DWW will be explained under the theoretical framework of critical geopolitics, humanitarian space, humanitarian system, and changing parameters of the Turkish foreign policy, where the relations between these elements will be further examined.