This chapter explores the extent of contemporary neo-Ottomanism’s influence in Turkey’s foreign policy and the political infrastructure for implementing it. It examines the dynamic of the mutually constitutive relationship between Islamization and Ottomanization within three stages of Turkish foreign policy: Europeanization (2002–2010); Arab Spring and Islamicization (2010–2013); “Splendid Isolation” (2013–present). The focus of the chapter is Ahmet Davutoğlu, who provided the ideological framework for neo-Ottoman foreign policy. The analysis probes Davutoğlu’s understanding of Ottomanism as Islamist, anti-Western, adventurist, and ideological. This leads to exploring why many pundits and critics of Turkey’s foreign and domestic politics use this specific term as an epithet to signal the gradual Islamicization of domestic politics and the growing presence of Islamic irredentism in foreign policy.
Turkish Foreign Policy in the Middle East After Arab Spring
