Oguzhan Goksel
Associate Professor of Political Economy & International Relations
Managing Editor of New Middle Eastern Studies (NMES) journal
2021 - Associate Professor (ÜAK, Inter-Universities Council of Turkey)
2015 - Ph.D. in Political Science, Durham University, UK
2011 - M.A. in International Relations (Middle East), Durham University, UK
2010 - B.A. in International Relations, Istanbul University (Faculty of Political Science), Turkey
Oguzhan Goksel is Associate Professor of Political Economy & International Relations at Marmara University, Faculty of Economics, Turkey. He is also the Managing Editor of international peer-reviewed journal "New Middle Eastern Studies" based in the UK.
Prior to joining Marmara University in March 2021, he worked at Istanbul 29 Mayis University from October 2014 to February 2021.
His Ph.D. research at Durham University focused on modernisation in non-Western societies, specifically examining the case of Turkey in light of competing theories of development and in comparison to Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt and Tunisia. The thesis is titled "Assessing the Turkish Model: The Modernisation Trajectory of Turkey through the Lens of the Multiple Modernities Paradigm" (Supervisors: Professor Emma C. Murphy & Dr. Colin Turner).
Goksel's main areas of research are modernisation and non-Western modernities; comparative political economy; political economy of development; historical sociology; and foreign policy analysis. His works have been published in various edited volumes and international peer-reviewed journals such as Mediterranean Politics, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Turkish Studies, New Middle Eastern Studies and Insight Turkey.
Phone: +90 216 777 3000
Address: Marmara University, Department of Economics
Maltepe Campus, Faculty of Economics – Istanbul, Turkey
Managing Editor of New Middle Eastern Studies (NMES) journal
2021 - Associate Professor (ÜAK, Inter-Universities Council of Turkey)
2015 - Ph.D. in Political Science, Durham University, UK
2011 - M.A. in International Relations (Middle East), Durham University, UK
2010 - B.A. in International Relations, Istanbul University (Faculty of Political Science), Turkey
Oguzhan Goksel is Associate Professor of Political Economy & International Relations at Marmara University, Faculty of Economics, Turkey. He is also the Managing Editor of international peer-reviewed journal "New Middle Eastern Studies" based in the UK.
Prior to joining Marmara University in March 2021, he worked at Istanbul 29 Mayis University from October 2014 to February 2021.
His Ph.D. research at Durham University focused on modernisation in non-Western societies, specifically examining the case of Turkey in light of competing theories of development and in comparison to Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt and Tunisia. The thesis is titled "Assessing the Turkish Model: The Modernisation Trajectory of Turkey through the Lens of the Multiple Modernities Paradigm" (Supervisors: Professor Emma C. Murphy & Dr. Colin Turner).
Goksel's main areas of research are modernisation and non-Western modernities; comparative political economy; political economy of development; historical sociology; and foreign policy analysis. His works have been published in various edited volumes and international peer-reviewed journals such as Mediterranean Politics, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Turkish Studies, New Middle Eastern Studies and Insight Turkey.
Phone: +90 216 777 3000
Address: Marmara University, Department of Economics
Maltepe Campus, Faculty of Economics – Istanbul, Turkey
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Books by Oguzhan Goksel
The contributors analyze Turkey’s deepening involvement in Middle Eastern regional affairs, also addressing issues such as terrorism, social and political movements and minority rights struggles. While these problems have traditionally been regarded as domestic matters, this book highlights their increasingly regional dimension and the implications for the foreign affairs of Turkey and countries in the Middle East.
Journal Articles by Oguzhan Goksel
– reluctant to critique the Soviet Union. By applying the postcolonial theoretical framework, this article re-conceptualizes Soviet policies in the Caucasus and Central Asia – encompassing political repression, economic exploitation, and cultural assimilation – as forms of colonial domination. The Soviet Union’s practices in these regions mirror those of Western colonial empires, including forced collectivization, resource extraction, and cultural suppression. Through this analysis, the article seeks to fill a crucial gap in the literature, offering a nuanced understanding of Soviet imperialism and contributing to a broader discourse on the nature of colonialism beyond Western contexts.
Examining the similarities and differences between their experiences may teach researchers a lot about the origins of polarization, its adverse effects on democratic governance and potential solutions. The Republicans and the Democrats in the U.S. have grown more ideologically opposed during the past decade in particular, leading to political violence as became evident with the 6th January 2021 Capitol Riot and the 13th July 2024 assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump. A great schism has also shaped Turkish politics as the long reign of the AKP (Justice and Development Party) since 2002 has polarized secularists and Islamists as well as Kurdish and Turkish nationalists. It will be argued that while authoritarian inclinations, political institutions, and historical legacies are distinctive to each setting; identity politics, economic inequalities, and social media driven echo chambers are major commonalities. A number of insights on reducing polarization will be derived from this comparative analysis, namely the need to build coalitions of parties/social movements representing different ideologies, reducing economic inequality, encouraging inclusive government, and promoting media diversity.
Realist – Machiavellian – ways illiberal polities (e.g. China) commonly formulate foreign economic policy.
This article argues that the multi-dimensional cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan constitutes a “special relationship” - the likes of which can be found in cases such as the durable US-UK alliance. I argue that neo-realist, neo-liberal and purely pragmatist political economic viewpoints are insufficient to grasp the “emotional and ideational essence” of Turkey-Azerbaijan alliance which is rooted in the continuing influence of Pan-Turkism on their national identities. Hence, I propose that the English School and the Social Constructivist approach could better explain Turkey-Azerbaijan ties as both underline the importance of ideational and non-materialistic elements in foreign policy behavior.
To test our hypothesis, the article studies in detail the main contours of Turkey-Azerbaijan relations over the last century and locate the meaning of the alliance within the broader goals of Turkish and Azerbaijani foreign policies. Two specific periods are used as in-depth case studies, namely the notable issue of the “Sibling’s Aid” (1918-1922) and the recent 2020 Second Karabakh War. It will be argued that in both of these momentous periods, the peoples and governments of the two sides provided essential support to each other without necessarily expecting short-term pragmatic returns. In its penultimate section, the article also briefly covers the past and present of Turkey-Armenia relations and discuss the influence of Armenia on the making of Turkish foreign policy towards the Caucasus.
Iran is a particularly noteworthy case because anti-Westernism played a key role in the formation of the modern state in the country. The foreign policy behavior of Iran in our time and the historical trajectory that produced the Islamic Republic after the 1979 Revolution cannot be understood without acknowledging anti-Westernism. The origins of anti-Westernism in Iran are explored in this article through interpreting the path dependent historical experience of the country, with a particular emphasis on the relations between Iran and Western countries. In contrast to works that attribute Iran’s anti-Western foreign policy to the Islamist ideology of the post-1979 era, it will be argued that hostility to the Western-dominated international political system should actually be traced to the transformation in which the Iranian national identity evolved in the early 20th century.
This article utilizes a historical sociology approach based on the Uneven and Combined Development Theory (U&CD) to locate the origins of the unexpected rise of New Turkey in our age. It is argued that complex interactions between elements of Western modernity (e.g. secularization and democratization), various social engineering programs launched since the late Ottoman era and Turkey’s own path dependent trajectory have gradually produced a socio-economic and political model that radically diverges from the Western experience.
The arguments of the work are mostly based on interviews with Gezi activists. It is argued that Gezi produced a discursive challenge to the national security-oriented understanding of the ‘Kurdish question’. Yet, even though the human security oriented Gezi discourse had brought the Kurdish political movement and the Turkish left together, it ultimately failed to permanently transform Turkish politics due to the collapse of the peace process in June 2015.
In addition to contributing to the literature on Gezi, the article also draws insights for security studies. It concludes that alternative discourses to the state-centric securitization approach to conflicts such as the Kurdish question can only have a lasting effect under conditions of ceasefire.
through interviews with policy-makers and influential actors in Tunisian society. It will be shown that the ideological division of Tunisian society into two camps, secularists and Islamists, has shaped the perceptions of the Turkish model in the country. It will be argued that despite their differences, the model can appeal to both secularists and conservatives in terms of its post-ideological nature that endorses the concept of “civil state” which is supported by both political groups.
has become a key ingredient of the discourse of democratization in the
Middle East. Despite the widespread interest, however, there is a great
sense of confusion caused by the subjective use and misinterpretation
of the model. The study will point to the weaknesses of the two
conventional understandings of the Turkish model and offer a new approach.
The study will acknowledge various socio-economic, cultural
and political differences between Turkey and Middle Eastern societies
and the fact that the full application of the model may not be possible,
however, the article will conclude that despite these differences, the
Turkish model has a lot to offer in terms of guidance in areas such as
the state-religion relations, the role of military, economic development
and democracy building.
Book Chapters by Oguzhan Goksel
The purpose of this study is to offer a nuanced picture of how the main British political parties deal with the challenge of allying with a politically divisive but strategically vital partner. It will be argued that while the Conservative Party’s foreign policy approach toward Türkiye reflects the non-ideological/pragmatist tenets of Neo-Realist IR (International Relations) theory, the Labour Party’s perspective toward Ankara is seemingly under the influence of various moralistic ideologies such as social liberalism, social democracy, and Neo-Marxism.