Mustafa Kutlay
Biographic Data
| ID | 4096822 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mustafa Kutlay |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mustafa |
| FAMILY NAME | Kutlay |
| SIGNATURE | KUTLAY M |
| AFFILIATIONS | City, University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4942-1001 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 149 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 23 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Turkey’s quest for strategic autonomy in the Middle East and the Black Sea regions
The study of Turkey’s foreign policy and its quest for strategic autonomy has focused on the country itself. However, the literature has so far not provided a comparative overview of how the foreign policy of strategic autonomy has been pursued and what responses it elicited by key states concerning Turkey’s foreign policy. The introduction to the Special Issue, Turkey’s quest for strategic autonomy in the Middle East and the Black Sea regions: N…
Strategic autonomy in Turkish foreign policy in an age of multipolarity
Strategic autonomy has become a guiding principle for several states as the international order moves toward multipolarity. Turkey has also attempted to carve out a more autonomous space from its traditional Western allies by building new ties in the non-Western world, ranging from the Russia–China axis to the Middle East and beyond. This paper explores the idea and practice of strategic autonomy in Turkish foreign policy. We argue that strategic…
Governance crises and resilience of authoritarian populism
The May 2023 elections in Turkey are puzzling because public support for President Erdoan did not erode despite political-economic failures of considerable magnitude.The economy was ailing, the government's performance in containing natural disasters was dismal, and oscillations in foreign policy were perplexing.Yet, Erdoan managed to win elections once again, giving him the mandate to continue ruling the country over the next five years.What exp…
A Critical Juncture
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine constitutes a critical juncture for the trajectory of the liberal-international order. It has undermined the US-led order by widening geopolitical rifts between the West and the Global South, increasing pressure on liberal democracy on a global scale and weakening the neo-liberal economic paradigm that has anchored the economic order since the 1980s
The ties that don’t bind
The literature on trading states has advanced our understanding of foreign economic policy dynamics, but what constitutes a proper trading state and determines its resilience remains somewhat unclear. This article contributes to the literature by developing a political economy framework to assess the role of ‘state capacity’ in conditioning Turkey’s foreign economic policies. Using Turkey as a case, we argue that states are more likely to show su…
State capacity and populist rule in times of uncertainty
In an age of 'radical uncertainty,' state capacity proves critical for countries to contain 'wicked crises' and improve the resilience of societies.At the same time, authoritarian populism has come to dominate politics in several countries.The impact of populist leadership on state capacity, however, remains an under-researched theme.We explore how populist rule has impeded effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic by weakening state capacity…
How Erdoğan Rules Through Crisis
What does the enduring rule of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tell us about the resilience of authoritarian populism despite economic and governance crises? This essay argues that a key source of authoritarian resilience lies in the mutually reinforcing interaction of state capture and market capture. The AKP government not only established firm control over state institutions but also reshaped state-market relations in a way that helped…
Liberal Democracy on the Edge? Anxieties in a Shifting Global (dis)order
The future of liberal democracy appears to be uncertain. This article develops a holistic approach to examine the prospects of liberal democracy by focusing on how three main regime types—that is, “established democratic regimes,” “hybrid regimes,” and “established authoritarian regimes”—interact with each other. We argue structural global political economy trends, which largely created the current authoritarian populist tide, remain strong despi…
The EU’s truth by omission
While the literature generally frames crises as catalysts for organisational learning, most theories focus on ‘success’ stories of learning – ex post facto explanations of why certain ideas gained traction after a specific crisis. Less emphasis has been placed on lessons that were likely to be drawn, but were not. In probing this point, we explore the European Union’s selective learning after the recent Eurozone crisis. Reforms were mostly top-do…
Understanding oscillations in Turkish foreign policy
The conventional literature on the role of middle powers emphasises the importance of soft power, niche diplomacy and coalition building. This article explores a case of unusual middle power activism with a focus on recent Turkish foreign policy behaviour. It demonstrates how the interaction of domestic politics and external dynamics produced an unusual degree of foreign policy activism, going well beyond conventional middle power behaviour, with…
Turkish foreign policy in a post-western order
Turkish foreign policy has dramatically transformed over the last two decades. In the first decade of the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) rule, the 'logic of interdependence' constituted the driving motive of Turkish foreign policy. In the second decade, however, the 'logic of interdependence' and the soft power-driven 'mediator-integrator' role were gradually replaced with a quest for 'strategic autonomy', accompanied by interventionism, u…
The Global Political Economy of Right-wing Populism
The rise of right-wing populism should be studied as a truly global phenomenon. Domestic and regional contexts are obviously crucial, yet a narrow focus on the domestic realm fails to capture some of the key constituents and paradoxical features of the rise and resilience of right-wing populist projects around the world. Therefore, right-wing populism and the way its contradictions are ‘managed’ ought to be understood within the context of mutual…
The anatomy of Turkey’s new heterodox crisis
A decade after the global financial turmoil, a new wave of crises is haunting the global South. This pattern is different from previous crisis episodes. Powerful shifts in the international order provide new policy space for emerging powers to manage their economic problems in a heterodox fashion. Key Western-led institutions no longer enjoy a monopoly in dictating the terms of financial assistance for countries in economic difficulty, as non-Wes…
The New Age of Hybridity and Clash of Norms
This article sketches an analytical framework to account for new patterns of global governance. We characterize the emergent postliberal international order as a new age of hybridity, which signifies that no overriding set of paradigms dominate global governance. Instead, we have a complex web of competing norms, which creates new opportunities as well as major elements of instability, uncertainty, and anxiety. In the age of hybridity, non-Wester…
The politics of state capitalism in a post-liberal international order
This article discusses the transformation of the liberal international order, with reference to the ways in which global shifts affect the developmental paradigms among the emerging middle powers. Although it is rarely contested that the liberal order is being severely tested, the dynamics and potential consequences of this transformation are a matter of intense controversy. Also, the debate mainly focuses on great power politics, without paying …
Reverse transformation? Global shifts, the core-periphery divide and the future of the EU
The EU faces an existential crisis. The ‘liberal core’, which played an important role in transforming the illiberal regimes in much of the post-war period, suffers from a series of setbacks. This paper argues that the possibility of reverse transformation – that is, the power of the emergent illiberal bloc to influence the liberal core, has become a real possibility for the first time in the history of European integration. The paper contributes…
Global Shifts and the Limits of the EU’s Transformative Power in the European Periphery
This article highlights the weakening of the EU’s transformative capacity in the broader European periphery in a rapidly shifting global order, with reference to Hungary and Turkey. Although Hungary is an ‘insider’ and Turkey a relative ‘outsider’, their recent experiences display strikingly similar patterns, raising important concerns about the EU’s leverage. Under the influence of strong nationalist-populist leaders backed by powerful majoritie…
The Political Economies of Turkey and Greece
Neo-developmentalist turn in the global political economy? The Turkish case
The 2008 global economic crisis galvanized the debate on neo-developmentalism as the pendulum of economic thinking began to swing away from neoliberalism. The current shift in the modalities of market governance mainly deals with the ways through which industrial policies can be crafted in a more open-economy setting. Accordingly, the post-crisis literature turns a keen eye on the state’s developmental role in the research and development (R&D) s…
The dynamics of emerging middle-power influence in regional and global governance
This article attempts to understand the properties, potentials and limits of middle-power activism in a changing global order. Extensive debate on the rise of emerging powers notwithstanding, the potential contributions of emerging middle powers in regional and global governance, and the imminent challenges they face in their struggle for an upgraded status in the hierarchy of world politics, is an understudied issue. This study aims to fill this…
Is the American century over
Rising Powers in a Changing Global Order
nThe rise of BRICs presents a major challenge to the existing global order. A second category of emerging powers, which may be labelled near- bric s, have also displayed increasing pro-activism in recent years in terms of influencing the regional balance of power politics, in addition to their growing presence in international organisations and global affairs. It is in this context that we aim to examine Turkey as a striking example of a â near- …
Internationalization of finance capital in Spain and Turkey
This study applies the proactive/reactive state framework to the transformation of Spanish and Turkish finance capital in a comparative perspective. It concludes that the “proactive” policies pursued by the Spanish state and the strategic coalition established between political elites and the integrationist segments of finance capital resulted in the heterodox internationalization of Spanish firms, whereas the “reactive” state policies in Turkey,…
The dynamics of emerging middle-power influence in regional and global governance
This article attempts to understand the properties, potentials and limits of middle-power activism in a changing global order. Extensive debate on the rise of emerging powers notwithstanding, the potential contributions of emerging middle powers in regional and global governance, and the imminent challenges they face in their struggle for an upgraded status in the hierarchy of world politics, is an understudied issue. This study aims to fill this…
Global Shifts and the Limits of the EU’s Transformative Power in the European Periphery
This article highlights the weakening of the EU’s transformative capacity in the broader European periphery in a rapidly shifting global order, with reference to Hungary and Turkey. Although Hungary is an ‘insider’ and Turkey a relative ‘outsider’, their recent experiences display strikingly similar patterns, raising important concerns about the EU’s leverage. Under the influence of strong nationalist-populist leaders backed by powerful majoritie…
Turkish foreign policy in a post-western order
Turkish foreign policy has dramatically transformed over the last two decades. In the first decade of the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) rule, the 'logic of interdependence' constituted the driving motive of Turkish foreign policy. In the second decade, however, the 'logic of interdependence' and the soft power-driven 'mediator-integrator' role were gradually replaced with a quest for 'strategic autonomy', accompanied by interventionism, u…
The anatomy of Turkey’s new heterodox crisis
A decade after the global financial turmoil, a new wave of crises is haunting the global South. This pattern is different from previous crisis episodes. Powerful shifts in the international order provide new policy space for emerging powers to manage their economic problems in a heterodox fashion. Key Western-led institutions no longer enjoy a monopoly in dictating the terms of financial assistance for countries in economic difficulty, as non-Wes…
Rising Powers in a Changing Global Order
nThe rise of BRICs presents a major challenge to the existing global order. A second category of emerging powers, which may be labelled near- bric s, have also displayed increasing pro-activism in recent years in terms of influencing the regional balance of power politics, in addition to their growing presence in international organisations and global affairs. It is in this context that we aim to examine Turkey as a striking example of a â near- …
Understanding oscillations in Turkish foreign policy
The conventional literature on the role of middle powers emphasises the importance of soft power, niche diplomacy and coalition building. This article explores a case of unusual middle power activism with a focus on recent Turkish foreign policy behaviour. It demonstrates how the interaction of domestic politics and external dynamics produced an unusual degree of foreign policy activism, going well beyond conventional middle power behaviour, with…
The politics of state capitalism in a post-liberal international order
This article discusses the transformation of the liberal international order, with reference to the ways in which global shifts affect the developmental paradigms among the emerging middle powers. Although it is rarely contested that the liberal order is being severely tested, the dynamics and potential consequences of this transformation are a matter of intense controversy. Also, the debate mainly focuses on great power politics, without paying …
How Erdoğan Rules Through Crisis
What does the enduring rule of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tell us about the resilience of authoritarian populism despite economic and governance crises? This essay argues that a key source of authoritarian resilience lies in the mutually reinforcing interaction of state capture and market capture. The AKP government not only established firm control over state institutions but also reshaped state-market relations in a way that helped…
Liberal Democracy on the Edge? Anxieties in a Shifting Global (dis)order
The future of liberal democracy appears to be uncertain. This article develops a holistic approach to examine the prospects of liberal democracy by focusing on how three main regime types—that is, “established democratic regimes,” “hybrid regimes,” and “established authoritarian regimes”—interact with each other. We argue structural global political economy trends, which largely created the current authoritarian populist tide, remain strong despi…
The New Age of Hybridity and Clash of Norms
This article sketches an analytical framework to account for new patterns of global governance. We characterize the emergent postliberal international order as a new age of hybridity, which signifies that no overriding set of paradigms dominate global governance. Instead, we have a complex web of competing norms, which creates new opportunities as well as major elements of instability, uncertainty, and anxiety. In the age of hybridity, non-Wester…
Strategic autonomy in Turkish foreign policy in an age of multipolarity
Strategic autonomy has become a guiding principle for several states as the international order moves toward multipolarity. Turkey has also attempted to carve out a more autonomous space from its traditional Western allies by building new ties in the non-Western world, ranging from the Russia–China axis to the Middle East and beyond. This paper explores the idea and practice of strategic autonomy in Turkish foreign policy. We argue that strategic…
Neo-developmentalist turn in the global political economy? The Turkish case
The 2008 global economic crisis galvanized the debate on neo-developmentalism as the pendulum of economic thinking began to swing away from neoliberalism. The current shift in the modalities of market governance mainly deals with the ways through which industrial policies can be crafted in a more open-economy setting. Accordingly, the post-crisis literature turns a keen eye on the state’s developmental role in the research and development (R&D) s…
A Critical Juncture
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine constitutes a critical juncture for the trajectory of the liberal-international order. It has undermined the US-led order by widening geopolitical rifts between the West and the Global South, increasing pressure on liberal democracy on a global scale and weakening the neo-liberal economic paradigm that has anchored the economic order since the 1980s
State capacity and populist rule in times of uncertainty
In an age of 'radical uncertainty,' state capacity proves critical for countries to contain 'wicked crises' and improve the resilience of societies.At the same time, authoritarian populism has come to dominate politics in several countries.The impact of populist leadership on state capacity, however, remains an under-researched theme.We explore how populist rule has impeded effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic by weakening state capacity…
Reverse transformation? Global shifts, the core-periphery divide and the future of the EU
The EU faces an existential crisis. The ‘liberal core’, which played an important role in transforming the illiberal regimes in much of the post-war period, suffers from a series of setbacks. This paper argues that the possibility of reverse transformation – that is, the power of the emergent illiberal bloc to influence the liberal core, has become a real possibility for the first time in the history of European integration. The paper contributes…
Internationalization of finance capital in Spain and Turkey
This study applies the proactive/reactive state framework to the transformation of Spanish and Turkish finance capital in a comparative perspective. It concludes that the “proactive” policies pursued by the Spanish state and the strategic coalition established between political elites and the integrationist segments of finance capital resulted in the heterodox internationalization of Spanish firms, whereas the “reactive” state policies in Turkey,…
Internationalization of finance capital in Spain and Turkey
This study applies the proactive/reactive state framework to the transformation of Spanish and Turkish finance capital in a comparative perspective. It concludes that the “proactive” policies pursued by the Spanish state and the strategic coalition established between political elites and the integrationist segments of finance capital resulted in the heterodox internationalization of Spanish firms, whereas the “reactive” state policies in Turkey,…
Rising Powers in a Changing Global Order
nThe rise of BRICs presents a major challenge to the existing global order. A second category of emerging powers, which may be labelled near- bric s, have also displayed increasing pro-activism in recent years in terms of influencing the regional balance of power politics, in addition to their growing presence in international organisations and global affairs. It is in this context that we aim to examine Turkey as a striking example of a â near- …
Is the American century over
The dynamics of emerging middle-power influence in regional and global governance
This article attempts to understand the properties, potentials and limits of middle-power activism in a changing global order. Extensive debate on the rise of emerging powers notwithstanding, the potential contributions of emerging middle powers in regional and global governance, and the imminent challenges they face in their struggle for an upgraded status in the hierarchy of world politics, is an understudied issue. This study aims to fill this…
Neo-developmentalist turn in the global political economy? The Turkish case
The 2008 global economic crisis galvanized the debate on neo-developmentalism as the pendulum of economic thinking began to swing away from neoliberalism. The current shift in the modalities of market governance mainly deals with the ways through which industrial policies can be crafted in a more open-economy setting. Accordingly, the post-crisis literature turns a keen eye on the state’s developmental role in the research and development (R&D) s…
The Political Economies of Turkey and Greece
Reverse transformation? Global shifts, the core-periphery divide and the future of the EU
The EU faces an existential crisis. The ‘liberal core’, which played an important role in transforming the illiberal regimes in much of the post-war period, suffers from a series of setbacks. This paper argues that the possibility of reverse transformation – that is, the power of the emergent illiberal bloc to influence the liberal core, has become a real possibility for the first time in the history of European integration. The paper contributes…
Global Shifts and the Limits of the EU’s Transformative Power in the European Periphery
This article highlights the weakening of the EU’s transformative capacity in the broader European periphery in a rapidly shifting global order, with reference to Hungary and Turkey. Although Hungary is an ‘insider’ and Turkey a relative ‘outsider’, their recent experiences display strikingly similar patterns, raising important concerns about the EU’s leverage. Under the influence of strong nationalist-populist leaders backed by powerful majoritie…
The Global Political Economy of Right-wing Populism
The rise of right-wing populism should be studied as a truly global phenomenon. Domestic and regional contexts are obviously crucial, yet a narrow focus on the domestic realm fails to capture some of the key constituents and paradoxical features of the rise and resilience of right-wing populist projects around the world. Therefore, right-wing populism and the way its contradictions are ‘managed’ ought to be understood within the context of mutual…
The anatomy of Turkey’s new heterodox crisis
A decade after the global financial turmoil, a new wave of crises is haunting the global South. This pattern is different from previous crisis episodes. Powerful shifts in the international order provide new policy space for emerging powers to manage their economic problems in a heterodox fashion. Key Western-led institutions no longer enjoy a monopoly in dictating the terms of financial assistance for countries in economic difficulty, as non-Wes…
The New Age of Hybridity and Clash of Norms
This article sketches an analytical framework to account for new patterns of global governance. We characterize the emergent postliberal international order as a new age of hybridity, which signifies that no overriding set of paradigms dominate global governance. Instead, we have a complex web of competing norms, which creates new opportunities as well as major elements of instability, uncertainty, and anxiety. In the age of hybridity, non-Wester…
The politics of state capitalism in a post-liberal international order
This article discusses the transformation of the liberal international order, with reference to the ways in which global shifts affect the developmental paradigms among the emerging middle powers. Although it is rarely contested that the liberal order is being severely tested, the dynamics and potential consequences of this transformation are a matter of intense controversy. Also, the debate mainly focuses on great power politics, without paying …
The EU’s truth by omission
While the literature generally frames crises as catalysts for organisational learning, most theories focus on ‘success’ stories of learning – ex post facto explanations of why certain ideas gained traction after a specific crisis. Less emphasis has been placed on lessons that were likely to be drawn, but were not. In probing this point, we explore the European Union’s selective learning after the recent Eurozone crisis. Reforms were mostly top-do…
Understanding oscillations in Turkish foreign policy
The conventional literature on the role of middle powers emphasises the importance of soft power, niche diplomacy and coalition building. This article explores a case of unusual middle power activism with a focus on recent Turkish foreign policy behaviour. It demonstrates how the interaction of domestic politics and external dynamics produced an unusual degree of foreign policy activism, going well beyond conventional middle power behaviour, with…
Turkish foreign policy in a post-western order
Turkish foreign policy has dramatically transformed over the last two decades. In the first decade of the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) rule, the 'logic of interdependence' constituted the driving motive of Turkish foreign policy. In the second decade, however, the 'logic of interdependence' and the soft power-driven 'mediator-integrator' role were gradually replaced with a quest for 'strategic autonomy', accompanied by interventionism, u…
Liberal Democracy on the Edge? Anxieties in a Shifting Global (dis)order
The future of liberal democracy appears to be uncertain. This article develops a holistic approach to examine the prospects of liberal democracy by focusing on how three main regime types—that is, “established democratic regimes,” “hybrid regimes,” and “established authoritarian regimes”—interact with each other. We argue structural global political economy trends, which largely created the current authoritarian populist tide, remain strong despi…
The ties that don’t bind
The literature on trading states has advanced our understanding of foreign economic policy dynamics, but what constitutes a proper trading state and determines its resilience remains somewhat unclear. This article contributes to the literature by developing a political economy framework to assess the role of ‘state capacity’ in conditioning Turkey’s foreign economic policies. Using Turkey as a case, we argue that states are more likely to show su…
State capacity and populist rule in times of uncertainty
In an age of 'radical uncertainty,' state capacity proves critical for countries to contain 'wicked crises' and improve the resilience of societies.At the same time, authoritarian populism has come to dominate politics in several countries.The impact of populist leadership on state capacity, however, remains an under-researched theme.We explore how populist rule has impeded effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic by weakening state capacity…
How Erdoğan Rules Through Crisis
What does the enduring rule of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tell us about the resilience of authoritarian populism despite economic and governance crises? This essay argues that a key source of authoritarian resilience lies in the mutually reinforcing interaction of state capture and market capture. The AKP government not only established firm control over state institutions but also reshaped state-market relations in a way that helped…
Governance crises and resilience of authoritarian populism
The May 2023 elections in Turkey are puzzling because public support for President Erdoan did not erode despite political-economic failures of considerable magnitude.The economy was ailing, the government's performance in containing natural disasters was dismal, and oscillations in foreign policy were perplexing.Yet, Erdoan managed to win elections once again, giving him the mandate to continue ruling the country over the next five years.What exp…
A Critical Juncture
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine constitutes a critical juncture for the trajectory of the liberal-international order. It has undermined the US-led order by widening geopolitical rifts between the West and the Global South, increasing pressure on liberal democracy on a global scale and weakening the neo-liberal economic paradigm that has anchored the economic order since the 1980s
Strategic autonomy in Turkish foreign policy in an age of multipolarity
Strategic autonomy has become a guiding principle for several states as the international order moves toward multipolarity. Turkey has also attempted to carve out a more autonomous space from its traditional Western allies by building new ties in the non-Western world, ranging from the Russia–China axis to the Middle East and beyond. This paper explores the idea and practice of strategic autonomy in Turkish foreign policy. We argue that strategic…
Turkey’s quest for strategic autonomy in the Middle East and the Black Sea regions
The study of Turkey’s foreign policy and its quest for strategic autonomy has focused on the country itself. However, the literature has so far not provided a comparative overview of how the foreign policy of strategic autonomy has been pursued and what responses it elicited by key states concerning Turkey’s foreign policy. The introduction to the Special Issue, Turkey’s quest for strategic autonomy in the Middle East and the Black Sea regions: N…
Political science (22 works) · Political economy (21 works) · Politics (20 works) · Economics (18 works) · Economic system (16 works) · Law (15 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Turkey's Politics and Society (11 works) · Turkish (9 works)