Hiding in Plain Sight

As the explosive, ongoing release of hundreds of thousands of State Department diplomatic cables shows, official Washington is anxious about the direction that Turkey's government is taking the country -- and particularly the influence of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, long credited as the architect of its foreign policy. And judging by the academic-turned-international-strategist's doctoral dissertation, they have good reason to worry.

The first batch of cables, published by self-described whistle-blower organization WikiLeaks on Nov. 28, express the unvarnished concerns of U.S. diplomats regarding the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has recently improved Turkey's ties to Iran and Syria and engaged in a high-profile war of words with Israel following the botched Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in May. One November 2009 cable says that U.S. officials were "wondering if it could any longer count on Turkey to help contain Iran's profound challenge to regional peace." Another cable quotes a Turkish government official saying that Davutoglu exerts an "exceptionally dangerous" Islamist influence on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But the U.S. diplomatic corps shouldn't have had to wait for recent events to reveal to them the transformations that Davutoglu had in store for Turkish foreign policy. His doctoral dissertation, completed in 1990 at Istanbul's Bogazici University and later revised and published under the title "Alternative Paradigms," yields some important clues about his intellectual influences and guiding political philosophy.

The dissertation, written in English and buried in a neglected corner of the university library's reference collection, is esoterically titled "The Impacts of Alternative Weltanschauungs on Political Theories: A Comparison of Tawhid and Ontological Proximity." It is a dense, 298-page tome regarding the different ways in which Western and Islamic political thought justify political authority and conceive of political institutions and actors. Foreshadowing Samuel Huntington's famous "clash of civilizations" thesis, its main argument is that the divisions between the Western and Islamic world stem from an irreconcilable chasm between the philosophical and political traditions of the two civilizations, and that both sides can justifiably view the other as being ideologically intransigent.

As Davutoglu writes in his introduction: "The fundamental argument of the thesis is that the conflicts and contrasts between Islamic and Western political thought originate mainly from their philosophical, methodological and theoretical background rather than from only institutional and historical differences."

Islamic revivalism in the Middle East, Davutoglu contends, cannot be explained through sociological or economic reasoning. His work systematically lays out the vastly divergent paths taken by the two intellectual traditions, which he believes lead to important differences concerning both state and society.

Davutoglu traces the arc of Western thought on secularism, demonstrating that secularism is not a modern characteristic of Western civilization, but a persistent element in Western thought and institutions dating back to the pre-Westphalian era that has simply been reshaped in the modern age.

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JSOUCY

6:12 AM ET

December 3, 2010

Long Live Martin Luther?

Very few people indeed, professing to have found something new under the sun, are ever vindicated. Admittedly, I have not read Minister Davutoglu’s dissertation but certainly will once found. Nonetheless, Mr. Koplow’s article makes it clear that the Minister would have us believe that conflict exists between two equally valid paradigms pursuing opposing sets of values. Neatly enough these are depicted as his, representing harmony between religion and body politic and the West’s representing alienation (and by implication disharmony) between the two.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The difference lies more succinctly in where one believes the final resting place of sovereignty lies. Shall the body politic be subordinated to religion vis-à-vis Martin Luther? Or, shall religion be subordinated to the body politic vis-à-vis King James? Or thirdly (leaning on a wiser world’s words than my own), that no just rule can exist which does not recognize sovereignty lying solely in the governed and given of their free will.

Paraphrasing that brilliant genius of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America; in an ideal world containing both religion and politics, never the twain shall meet. But as we do not possess such an ideal world, let it be the work of law to ensure that the majority of one never coerces the minority of the other.

Minister Davutoglu is wrong on this point; the West once gave long and grave consideration to his ideals, and then turned resoundingly away.

SIDROCK23

10:24 AM ET

more BS from an american neo-con

this is just ANOTHER nonsense article in series of articles that are being written by pro-zionist neo-con mouth pieces who are now questioning turkey and its motives. ever since the israelis carried out their massacre on the turkish flotilla, which end up putting turkey on a high pedestal thru out the middle east. there is no doubt, that turkey is no longer coddling baby israel, and americans feel that they need to look at turkey with a suspicious eye. Let's assume that there is an "islamists" agenda behind turkey's policies. how is that any different that israel's far right extremist zionist policies that it applies to every fascet of their government? or how is it any different then american evangelical fundamentalisim that now dominates over the US military and the policies that it imposes. its clear that americans cannot get over the fact that they are becoming more and more irrelevant on the world stage and that unlike the europeans and arabs, the rest of the world will not bend over when the U.S says so. this is why we see new rising powers like China, India, Brazil, turkey, south africa carry out their own agenda and that is encouraging to see. if ameican politicians, analysts, "think tanks" had their heads on straight they would embrace these changes now and learn to live the differences of opinion that would exists instead of pushing all these forces closer together and against america.

KINGSNAKE

12:45 PM ET

The difference

SIDROCK23 the difference from the US and the muslims are that if you look at all the trouble spots in the world you'll find some muslim exstrimist trying to kill you if you don't agree with their brain washed idea on how the world works. And where do you think Turkey would be if Christian based countries hadn't stepped in and stopped HITLER from taking over your part of the world? I think the air would be filled with the stentch of Turkey muslim carcasus burning in the furnaces if it wasn't for the United States GI'S giving their lives so idiots like you could spread your BS about their country in the future!! BECAUSE THE SNAKE SAY'S SO!!!

BASE

1:35 PM ET

KIngsnake:

You raise an interesting point. However, it seems to me that you are pointing the finger in the wrong direction. As an American, I am sad to say that it appears that we are the ones that appear to be involved in most of the major trouble spots. While we like to believe that we are there as a force of good it is clear in many of them that this is clearly not the case.

Take, for example, Iraq. Are there Muslims there? Of course. But we invaded them and did so for no reason. That there are Muslim extremists there is really by our own hand.

How about Afghanistan? Even if you concede that we went in there for the right reasons (or at least justifiable reasons) it does not excuse what we are doing to this country now. It simply does not.

We - the USA - are everywhere in the Middle East - an area overwhelmingly inhabited by Muslims, and apparently you complain that it is the Muslims that are to blame for being in these 'trouble spots'? Perhaps we really need to ask why we feel it is appropriate for us to send our troops 1/2 way around the world in the first place?

But how about North Korea? We are there en mass just off of their border. No Muslims, only Americans and Koreans.

It is the US that is everywhere there seems to be trouble. Now we just need to understand the cause and effect of this. Try and examine the chicken-and-egg question to see if we are causing these problems, or only showing up after the fact.

BLUE13326

3:11 PM ET

Chicken and egg? LOL! You

Chicken and egg? LOL! You have no grasp of basic logic. Because we are involved in an area now we are responsible for problems many of which existed even before our country was created? What stupidity.

PUPIL

7:42 PM ET

more BS from an american neo-soc

this is just another nonsense comment in series of postings that are being written by anti-israel neo-socialist pro-collectivist mouth pieces who despite the facts deny turkey motives to derail any peace between israel and arabs by staging a bloody flotilla provocation. we need to thank michael koplow for well-written and objective exposure of the anti-human islamist collectivist roots put into current turkey jingoist outbursts.

hey FP, if you want to censor this reply you must also kill the sidrock23 drivel.

VERMONT CHARLES

12:05 PM ET

Hiding in Plain SIght

Ideology has its influence in the practice of foreign affairs, but it would seem that Ahmet Devutoglu has gotten beyond his dissertation of twenty years ago and in the process has avoided the dead-end of the French dynasty, the Bourbons, who, as Napoleon famously observed: "Learned nothing and forgot nothing."

Devutoglu's Party, the AKP, has broken with a similar mindset and, with bumps in the road, gone a long way to be a positive force in the Middle East. They cannot be rigid ideologues, being abutted by Arabs, Persians, Israelis, and those paragons of western values, Bulgarians.

Foreign Policy Magazine

You don't need to get your hands on secret cables to learn that Turkey's foreign minister has a radically different view of the world than American diplomats. Just read his dissertation.

BY MICHAEL KOPLOW | DECEMBER 2, 2010

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