Introduction Turkey and Africa: Motivations, Challenges and Future Prospects

Abstract

Turkey's presence in Africa has experienced significant growth over the last two decades. In recent years, Turkey's expanding African outreach has transformed media narratives and generated a surge of scholarly studies on Turkey's involvement in Africa. Turkey's renewed focus on the continent and its commitment to establishing an equal partnership with African nations came after years of neglect. Previously, Turkey's relationship with African countries followed a cycle of ups and downs. The interest in Africa was largely driven by short-term foreign policy considerations, such as breaking Turkey's international isolation and securing diplomatic support from African nations. Understanding how Turkey's carefully crafted discourses resonate with African countries in the face of competition from other external actors is a challenging task. Despite the existence of a rich and extensive literature on how external players engage with Africa, Turkey's role and the long-term impact of its involvement have often been overlooked. This special issue aims to contribute to the existing literature by exploring different dimensions of Turkey's multifaceted Africa policy, including its engagement in the security landscape, the African arms market, humanitarian efforts, and public diplomacy initiatives.