Teaching Europe and the Middle East at universities in Turkey

Abstract

In parallel with the increasingly complex multidimensional and multilayered features of International Relations (IR) the importance of IR departments and their curricula has also gained importance worldwide. In this regard Turkey has not been free of these developments in particular due to its geopolitical location at the intersection of Europe and the Middle East. The end of the Cold War precipitated various chain reactions in Turkey’s immediate neighbourhood. In this context the country has begun to adopt new activism in the Middle East and intensified its EU accession process. Hence it has become imperative for Turkish higher education to increase the diversification of courses on regional studies in IR departments in such a fashion as to reveal the changing nature of IR and Turkey’s new engagements. Against this background this chapter explores the curricular practices of teaching courses on Europe and the Middle East based on a research sample obtained from the IR departments of the top fifty universities in Turkey. By analysing the syllabi of European and Middle East courses it addresses the question of how Turkish ‘exceptionalism’ and ‘liminality’ features that characterise Turkish foreign policy are reflected in the teaching in IR departments. © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.