Özet:

This paper brings a role theory perceptive to Europeanisation studies and offers a more holistic analysis to look at the impact of the EU on the national foreign policies of target states. Using the insights from Holsti’s (1970) role theory, the paper analyses the uneasy swing of Turkish foreign policy vis-à-vis the EU through an assessment of Turkey’s adherence to the EU’s role prescriptions: following a peaceful foreign policy and contributing to regional peace and stability. Findings of the paper highlight that Turkey faced several role strains arising from different role conceptions of bureaucratic and political elites leading the former to act as a veto player on the latter. As a result, the roles performed by Turkey in the international system ranged from ‘active-independent’, ‘bridge’ and ‘mediator-integrator’.

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