In October 2018, Review of International Political Economy published Seçkin Köstem’s “Different paths to regional hegemony: national identity contestation and foreign economic strategy in Russia and Turkey.”
In this article, Seçkin argues that national identity conceptions of ruling elites have constructed national economic interests and shaped the foreign economic strategies of Russia and Turkey. In the post-Cold War period, both Moscow and Ankara have seen themselves as order-providers in their respective neighborhoods and reoriented their foreign economic strategies to exert influence over their neighbors. Seçkin investigates why Russia has primarily relied on coercive hegemony to establish the Eurasian Economic Union, while Turkey has resorted to liberal economic tools to exert influence in the Middle East. His paper also demonstrates that both Russia and Turkey have continued to rely on strategies that have failed to deliver their promises.
Seçkin is spending the 2018-2019 year away from Bilkent, currently as a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute. In Fall 2018 he was a George F. Kennan fellow at the Kennan Institute. His research focuses on the interaction between national identity and economic strategy in Russia and Turkey and CRS looks forward to having him back in academic year 2019-2020!