The Gulf Crisis: Turkey’s Soft Power in the Gulf

Abstract

Power in world politics is one of the oldest themes in international relations, and is usually defined with reference to states’ military and economic capabilities. Hard power instruments have been widely used by states as a means of coercion, forcing other states to adopt positions that are more favorable to the coercing power. Yet in recent years other forms of power have gained currency in the arena of international relations. The term “soft power,” introduced by Joseph Nye, has come to forefront as a means to understand the changing nature of power. This chapter examines the record of Turkey’s soft power policies and impacts within the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman) since the 1980s, through the means of analytical, normative, ideological, and empirical measures. The chapter also studies the reflections of Turkish soft power in the six aforementioned countries through reviewing public opinion surveys. Filling a significant gap in the literature, this research thus offers an analysis of the public attitude surveys concerning Turkey, and studies the underlying factors driving such attitudes, in order to draw a broad and comprehensive picture of the soft power policies of this non-Arab regional state.