The Transnationalisation of Turkish Islam

The Transnationalisation of Turkish Islam builds on current academic debates pertaining to the use of religion in global politics. By examining how and why religion is used as a tool for foreign policy aims, as well as for perpetuating a state's identity and institutional capacity at home and abroad, the book presents a theory-informed discussion on contemporary Turkey's transnational politics of religion from a comparative perspective. The country's use of religion as a political tool outside of its borders has been studied in Continental Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Balkans thanks to extensive fieldwork and interviews conducted between 2016 and 2020. The book investigates how and why Turkey has implemented similar tools with different aims in different geographic territories and the underlying material and normative motivations for this pursuit. The main argument presented in the study is that Turkey, under the rule of the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) (Justice and Development Party), employs religion for three fundamental reasons: to bolster its regional and global influence, to access regions or groups that are difficult to reach through traditional foreign policy tools, and to alter domestic political balances or amass power. The Transnationalisation of Turkish Islam will appeal to students and scholars of political science, international relations, and public policy.

Ahmet Erdi Öztürk is Reader in Politics and International Relations at London Metropolitan University and a non-resident fellow at ELIAMEP (Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy). He serves as Section Chair of the International Studies Association's (ISA) Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Studies (ENMISA) section and is co-editor of the Edinburgh University Press series on Modern Turkey and the journal Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. Between 2021 and 2023, he held a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship at Coventry University (UK) and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). Previously, he was a Swedish Institute doctoral and postdoctoral fellow at Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO) (Linköping University) and a post-doctoral scholar in residence at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. He received his PhD in political science from the University of Strasbourg (highest distinction) in 2018. His research examines the intersection of religion, politics, and international relations, with a focus on transnational religious governance, foreign policy, and conflict/peace processes. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 10 books, more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 25 book chapters and has published policy reports with institutions including the Berkeley Center, RUSI, and the Middle East Institute. His commentary has appeared in outlets such as openDemocracy, The Conversation, HuffPost, and France 24. He is a recipient of the International Studies Association's Emerging Scholar Award (2021, 2022, 2023), London Metropolitan University's Rising Star Award (2021), and the Centre for Turkey Studies (CEFTUS) Academic of the Year (2024).

Introduction Chapter 1. Religion, Secularization, Identity, and Power in World Politics Chapter 2. Scrutinising Turkey's history along the axis of religion Chapter 3. Imagined Proximity, Real Contestation: Turkey's Religious Outreach across the Balkans Chapter 4. Western Europe: From Pastoral Care to Diaspora Control? Chapter 5. Entering Late, Playing Different: Transnational Religion-Making and Turkish Diaspora Governance in the Anglo-Saxon World Chapter 6. Africa as a Post-Imperial Frontier: Turkey's Religious Statecraft, Competitive Influence, and the Limits of Neo-Ottoman Outreach Chapter 7. Eurasia's Post-Soviet Religious Field: Turkey's Diyanet, Turkic Solidarity, and the Islamism-Turkism Fusion Conclusion. Religion as Transnational Statecraft, and the Ambivalence of Influence