http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/9 Mon, 06 Apr 2026 06:01:28 GMT 2026-04-06T06:01:28Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2374 Presidential change and foreign policy role shifts: The United States at the UN, 2013-2020 Halistoprak, Burak Toygar; Cenker-Özek, Işıl Cerem This paper examines how presidential change affects the United States’ (US) foreign policy role conceptions, with a particular focus on its orientation toward the Liberal International Order (LIO). Conventional assumptions in International Relations literature suggest that the US, as both the founder and also the defender of the LIO, maintains a relatively stable foreign policy posture regardless of leadership transitions (Ikenberry, 2011). Challenging this expectation, we investigate the transition between Barack Obama’s second term (2013-2016) and Donald Trump’s first term in office (2017-2020). Drawing on Role Theory, we conducted a content analysis of eight US addresses to the United Nations General Assembly, coding role conceptions into four categories: assertive, cooperative, neutral, and challenger. Our findings reveal a clear departure from cooperative foreign policy roles under the Obama administration toward challenger foreign policy roles under the Trump administration. This shift underscores that presidential leadership can significantly influence the US’ stance toward the LIO, challenging the expectations of continuity of foreign policy across the US presidents. By analyzing the frequency and distribution of foreign policy roles elaborated discursively over time, this study highlights the importance of leadership styles and rhetorical choices in shaping grand foreign policy orientations. The findings contribute to debates about the resilience of the LIO and the extent to which domestic political change can influence global order commitments.; Bu makale, başkan değişiminin Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin (ABD) dış politika rol tasavvurlarını nasıl etkilediğini, özellikle de ülkenin Liberal Uluslararası Düzen’e (Liberal International OrderLIO) yönelik tutumu bağlamında incelemektedir. Uluslararası İlişkiler literatüründeki yaygın varsayımlar, ABD’nin LIO’nun hem kurucusu hem de savunucusu olarak, liderlik değişimlerinden bağımsız biçimde görece istikrarlı bir dış politika duruşunu sürdürdüğünü öne sürmektedir (Ikenberry, 2011). Makalede bu beklenti sorunsallaştırılmakta ve Barack Obama’nın ikinci başkanlık dönemi (2013-2016) ile Donald Trump’ın ilk başkanlık dönemi (2017-2020) mercek altına alınmaktadır. Makale, Rol Kuramı’ndan hareketle, ABD’nin Birleşmiş Milletler Genel Kurulu’nda gerçekleştirdiği sekiz konuşmanın içerik analizini yapmakta ve dış politika rol tasavvurlarını dört kategoriye ayırarak kodlamaktadır: iddialı, işbirlikçi, nötür ve meydan okuyucu. Bulgularımız, Obama döneminde baskın olan işbirlikçi rollerden, Trump döneminde giderek artan biçimde meydan okuyan rollere doğru bir geçiş olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Bu geçiş, başkan değişiminin ABD’nin LIO’ya yönelik tutumunu önemli ölçüde şekillendirebileceğini ve başkanlar arası dış politika sürekliliğine dair varsayımların sorgulanması gerektiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Zaman içinde dış politika rol dağılımlarını ve sıklığını analiz eden bu çalışma, liderlik tarzlarının ve söylemsel tercihlerin dış politikanın büyük stratejik yönelimlerini nasıl etkilediğine dikkat çekmektedir. Bulgular, LIO’nun dayanıklılığına dair tartışmalara ve iç politikadaki değişimlerin küresel düzen taahhütlerini ne ölçüde etkileyebileceğine ilişkin literatüre katkı sunmaktadır. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2374 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2373 The limits of EU liberal norm diffusion: a quest for ‘better democracy’? Cenker-Özek, Cerem I.; Çakmaklı İşler, Didem This study explores the extent to which the EU has diffused liberal and democratic norms across its new members and its periphery in a context of the EU’s liberal norm diffusion on the one hand, and the populist backlash towards liberalism on the other. We measure these norms via the International Social Survey Program Citizenship modules and levels of democracy via the Varieties of Democracy Project’s liberal democracy index. We posit that while liberalism has become near synonymous with democracy, and despite findings that affirm the EU’s influence on liberal norm diffusion, the EU’s lack of consideration of alternative republican and communitarian norms has slowed down the process of democratic consolidation. These findings have policy implications especially for Hungary and Poland, where democratic erosion is evident, and for EU candidate states, Türkiye and Georgia, where, in the accession process, the EU’s liberal bias prevails over alternative democratic norms. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2373 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2372 Substantiating EU citizenship: An unintended route to anti-establishment support Çakmaklı İşler, Didem; Cenker-Özek, Cerem Işıl This study explores the relationship between European Union citizenship and support for anti-establishment parties across the EU’s older and newer, post-communist democracies. By conceptually linking EU support to substantive EU citizenship, this study identifies the contingent nature of EU citizenship’s effect on support for anti-establishment parties. We conduct a multilevel regression analysis across 22 EU member-states, using data generated by a Eurobarometer survey conducted in 2018. This survey counts on support for EU coordinated foreign policy, in addition to conventional EU support measures, enabling an analysis at different levels of EU politics. Findings show that citizens’ support at these different levels depresses their support for anti-establishment parties across old democracies, yet increases it across new democracies. Hence, the effect of EU citizenship emerges as being contingent on whether citizens are in an old or a new, post-communist democracy of the EU, and on where the borders of the EU are drawn. This contingency has potential to be an instrument of deepening the emerging transnational cleavage between liberal, cosmopolitan and traditional, authoritarian values for old democracies and of manipulation by inward looking parochial, populist politics for new democracies. This will affect the nature of European politics and the future of integration. Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2372 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2323 Citizenship norms transforming in the age of artificial intelligence Çakmaklı İşler, Didem The multiplying rate of developments in technology, reflected in capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI), has presented us with the most amazing tools that enable access to knowledge, implement know how, and create new knowledge. Artificial intelligence has become a valuable component of social and political life that cannot be disregarded. Yet, while the immense benefits of artificial intelligence are well known, its risks to liberal democratic governance are also increasingly becoming evident (Duberry 2021; Boyte 2017; Nemitz 2018). Scholars and sector experts fear that long-term, unregulated usage of social media and artificial intelligence may gradually change human behaviour and societal level cultures. This study is a conceptual exploration of the potential changes to citizenship norms in liberal democracies in this context. Political cultures and political ideologies reflect divergent citizenship norms, i.e., what is considered to be good citizenship. Citizenship norms establish what is expected of the citizen, and the values and norms that prevail in relations between citizens and between citizens and the state. Diverse citizenship norms are rooted in divergent theories of citizenship. Citizenship is, on the one hand, the relationship between the state and the citizen, establishing their rights and responsibilities. Citizenship is also agency, i.e. the right to make claims, demands and pursue rights. Citizenship is belonging in a delineated community, establishing who is in and who is out. Citizenship is participation, contributing to the democratic process and the well-being of one’s community. The debates on the impact of artificial intelligence on individuals lead us to expect that continued interaction of the citizen and artificial intelligence may transform each of these conceptualizations of citizenship. As new technologies intermediate the relationship between the state and citizens, citizens may be expected to take on new roles, while rights and obligations may transform. The increasing agency of AI itself carries the potential to pacify citizen agency and make participation less relevant. Narrowing spaces for the citizen voice and the "public sphere", along with misinformation, may devolve citizenship away from its liberal, democratic nature. And while republican conceptualizations of citizenship entail a sense of belonging and a sense of community AI has the potential to degenerate these norms by fragmenting and polarizing communities. This is an initial theoretical exploration of the implications of changing social and political dynamics as a result of the increased presence of artificial intelligence in our lives. It explores the changed and changing spaces, agents, and norms of citizenship in liberal democracies in this era of technology. And while it acknowledges the opportunities that the transformation may present it cautions against the risks it poses to securing and enhancing democratic citizenship norms and practices. Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2323 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z