Staging Modernity: Public Diplomacy as a Status Performance in Early Republican Turkey
International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2026 (AHCI, SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1080/10286632.2026.2665657
- Dergi Adı: International Journal of Cultural Policy
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Index Islamicus, Political Science Complete, Public Affairs Index
- Anahtar Kelimeler: public diplomacy, state visits, status, stigma, Turkey
- Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
This paper examines Turkey’s efforts to establish itself as a legitimate actor of the international order through an analysis of visits to Turkey by the heads of state of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Transjordan in the Republic’s first decade. It argues that these diplomatic encounters functioned as tools of status seeking, through which early Republican elites sought to stage, affirm and legitimize Turkey’s position within a hierarchical international order structured by distinctions between Western and non-Western modernities. Drawing on archival documents and newspaper coverage, the article analyzes how these visits were instrumentalized as tools of public diplomacy, conceptualizing them as choreographed spectacles deploying spatial transformation, institutional transformation and socio-cultural transformation to communicate Turkey’s desired civilizational alignment with Western modernity. By foregrounding the symbolic and performative dimensions of diplomatic practice, the article contributes to debates on public diplomacy and status, demonstrating how modern identity was staged during periods of state transformation.