The Association of Research Studies is opening the 2023 - 2024 semester, in which it will continue its academic studies, with a remarkable conference this year.
The 2023 - 2024 Term Opening Conference will be held on Saturday, October 14 at 16:30 at Üsküdar Youth Center. Ali Balcı's lecture titled "Ottoman International Relations: A Research Agenda" will officially kick off the new academic year. The program, which will welcome the guests with refreshments at 16:00, will continue with the conference starting at 16:30.
Ali Balcı, "Ottoman International Relations: A Research Agenda", Ali Balcı will talk about the agenda for the study of Ottoman international relations, focusing on the research areas of large-scale Ottoman order and/or system, Ottoman decision-making processes, and the compilation of data sets on the Ottoman world. He will discuss the new perspectives that this method of study allows for in-depth studies in the discipline of international relations from a historical perspective, as well as new perspectives on the role and interactions of the Ottoman Empire in the global system.
Those who come to the Opening Conference will have the opportunity to get information about İLEM Specialization Studies with its renewed format, the 12th Turkey Graduate Studies Congress to be held on November 15-17, 2023, and other activities of İLEM. In addition, in the Inaugural Conference, which is the first lesson of the Education Program students, the new level students and the Education Program lecturers will come together for the first time.
OTTOMAN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: A RESEARCH AGENDA
What does it mean to bring the Ottoman Empire into the discipline of International Relations, both in terms of the discipline specifically and in the context of IR studies in Turkey? Is the recent transformation of the IR discipline in terms of going beyond the West and understanding the pre-modern world an opportunity for Turkish IR? Is the study of the Ottoman Empire inevitably destined to glorify the local and remain at the margins of the discipline? Can a program of study that is aware of the danger implied by this last question be a remedy to the crisis of identity and authority of the IR community in Turkey?
The above questions force us to think about an Ottoman IR research agenda. However, I argue for a focus on three areas of research on the Ottoman world that I believe will enrich the discipline in general: large-scale Ottoman order and/or system, Ottoman decision-making processes, and the compilation of data sets on the Ottoman world. While the former is rich in its potential to articulate and participate in theoretical debates in IR, the latter offers a horizon in the context of foreign policy analysis, an important sub-branch of the discipline. The last one will contribute to data-based studies, which are increasingly gaining weight in the discipline. Of course, the contribution of Ottoman history to the discipline is not one-sided. As the Ottoman world is an empire that has experienced many changes and transformations in the historical process, the compilation of data sets will make it possible to better understand and analyze these changes. This will not only enable in-depth studies in the discipline of International Relations from a historical perspective but also provide new perspectives on the role and interactions of the Ottoman Empire within the global system.
