Turkey in the world system and the new orientalism

This chapter argues that the semi-periphery is no longer simply a place of unfulfilled promises or one in which the desire for progress is exploited to balance the structures of the capitalist world system. Today the semi-periphery challenges the system itself. Turkey demon- strates its anti-systemic aims in the political challenge that it presents to the world system. The new transformative semi-periphery is not interested in simply ‘developing’ according to the pre-ordained sets of institutional structures to then achieve ‘core’ status amongst battling hegemons. Rather, its potential today is its ability to challenge and per- haps alter the entire system. South America’s socialist strategies and the democratisation of the Western European countries have demonstrated the political drivers for systemic change. What makes Turkey interest- ing is that it is not challenging the political and economic expression of global capitalism through the socialist or democratic routes so often associated with the semi-periphery. The Turkish government is now using a very interesting critical technique called Ottoman Orientalism to challenge the arguably hegemonic civilising processes of EU integration. This chapter discusses the way in which Turkey is doing this, and argues that the transformative semi-periphery cannot cohere to one set of ideological, political, or identity-oriented principles, but now enjoys an anti-systemic status not seen in the theorisations of the semi-periphery in the traditional WSA.