Turkey's Public Diplomacy Initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Public diplomacy initiatives occupy a central place in Turkey's recent foreign policy approach. In its efforts to increase Turkey's say in world politics and to deepen relations especially with the previously-neglected regions including Africa the incumbent government attaches great importance to public diplomacy activities. This study aims at systematically analyzing how Turkey uses these activities in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to achieve its foreign policy objectives. In this respect public diplomacy strategies used in enhancing Turkey's image and visibility in those countries and in influencing the preferences of their public have been classified as short medium and long term activities. Although there is a still-evolving literature on Turkey's Africa policy the studies focusing on public diplomacy instruments is limited. This study therefore seeks to fill this gap in the extant literature by adopting an established classification approach used in measuring the effectiveness of public diplomacy activities.