Geopolitics and the study of international relations

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: SEMRA RANA GÖKMEN

Danışman: NECATİ POLAT

Özet:

This study seeks to examine the main theories and theorists of geopolitical imagining and argue for an intrinsic relation between traditional geopolitics and the development of international relations both in theory and practice. By doing so the study aims to pursue an assessment of the insights of critical geopolitics, as reflected in the works of John Agnew, Geraróid Ó Tuathail (Gerard Toal), Simon Dalby, Klaus Dodds and others, for the theory of IR, more specifically its dominant paradigm realism. The aim of this study, in other words, is to identify and describe the geopolitical assumptions that have led IR theory to turn out to be „realist‟. In this respect, throughout the work similarities with regard to the basic premises of the two fields, parallel ways of thinking, how visualizations and perceptions shaped the world and how the world in return shaped them as well as the emergence of “paradigmatic blindspots” will be handled in an effort to put forth an answer to the question: “Why do IR theory books not contain any chapters on traditional and critical geopolitics? And why is it that they should?”