Soli Özel

Özel, Soli

Name Variants

Ö., Soli
Soli Özel
Özel, S.
Soli, Ozel
Ozel,S.
S. Ozel
Soli Ozel
Ozel S.
O., Soli
Özel, SOLI
SOLI ÖZEL
ÖZEL, Soli
Soli ÖZEL
Ozel, S.
Özel, Soli
ÖZEL, SOLI
Ozel,Soli
O.,Soli
Ozel, Soli
S. Özel
Özel,S.

Job Title

Öğr. Gör.

Email Address

soli@khas.edu.tr

ORCID ID

0000-0001-6557-584X

Scopus Author ID

6603978399

Full item page

Scholarly Output

16

Articles

11

Citation Count

48

Supervised Theses

0 Scholarly Output Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 12

Citation Count: 1
US Policies Adrift in a Levant in Turmoil
(Uluslararası İlişkiler Konseyi Derneği, 2018) Özel, Soli; Özel, Soli
The Levant has constituted one of the core areas of interest for US foreign policy since the Second World War. The aim of this article is to shed light on the US policies towards the Levant mostly during the last two American administrations to understand how the vicissitudes of the region and of American politics made Washington's policy towards the Levant look biased at times incompetent and most importantly inconsistent. This article examines the changes in approach to the region as a whole from one administration to the next on issues such as the protection of Israel's sovereignty supporting friendly regimes fighting terrorism and containing Iran. The hesitations and shifts in policy towards Syria are given a longer treatment as they speak both to the yet not finalized American policy towards the Levant but also to show how the US has shifted track and moved away from unseating President Assad to focus more on containing and if possible rolling over Iran.
Citation Count: 0
Kehrtwende mit Fragezeichen: Erst Möchtegern-Spielmacher, dann Nebendarsteller, jetzt Partner der USA?
(Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Auswartige Politik e.V., 2015) Özel, Soli
[No abstract available]
Citation Count: 0
TURKEY: Governing the Unpredictable through Market Imperative
(Taylor and Francis, 2022) Özel, Soli; Özel, S.; Sr.
This chapter analyzes Turkey’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, arguing that Turkey’s authoritarian regime type rather than populism per se is the central factor in making sense of its crisis response. The key features of Turkey’s response to COVID-19 were neither apparently denialist nor overwhelmingly conspiratorial. However, double standards, extensive data manipulation, a lack of transparency, and suppression of dissent have become characteristic features of Turkey’s handling of the virus—all of which point to an authoritarian style in the management of the crisis. Extensive school closures and age-based restrictions on movement are also some important components of the crisis response. Overall, the neoliberal market imperative and the absolute prioritization of the economy/business are ultimately what shaped the policy choices of the Turkish government. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Nils Ringe and Lucio Rennó; individual chapters, the contributors.
Citation Count: 27
A moment of elation: The Gezi protests/resistance and the fading of the AKP project
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) Özel, Soli
Soli Özel situates Gezi in a broader, more global, Y context and offers insights into the societal dynamics that might have led to the June protests. Pointing to the commonalities between social movements in countries as dissimilar as Thailand, Brazil, Ukraine and Greece (or indeed the Arab world), Özel stresses the role of the impoverished middle classes, who try to turn these protests into an opportunity to produce participatory and democratic political spaces. What was put into practice with these demonstrations in Turkey is a search for a new definition of citizenship, Özel argues, as well as "an attempt to enlarge the liberal-democratic space in Turkish politics".
Citation Count: 1
EU Policy towards the Israel-Palestine Conflict: The Limitations of Mitigation Strategies
(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2024) Özel, Soli; Ozel, Soli
Over the decades, the EU has aimed at resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict through its Foreign and Security Policy (EUFSP) tools, with the 'two-state solution' as the over-arching principle for conflict resolution. This policy has been ineffective due to the contextual interplay of multipolar competition, regional fragmentation and EU-level internal contestation. Faced with these contextual constraints, the EU has employed a range of mitigation strategies: delegation as an institutional measure through its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions; multilateralisation as a diplomatic/coalitional measure through its participation in the Quartet and other multilateral platforms; and selective engagement as a functional measure through its trade ties with both actors and humanitarian aid policies in order to mitigate the impact of the contextual constraints. However, none of the EU's mitigation actions have adequately alleviated the impact of the three contextual constraints because of intra-regional sensitivities, divergences and violent clashes, as well as Israel's ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands with the protection of the United States (US).
Citation Count: 0
Elite Origins of Democracy and Development in the Muslim World
(Taylor and Francis, 2023) Özel, Soli; Özel,S.
Using an elite consensus/conflict analytical frame, this book examines why some majority Muslim countries perform so much better at democracy and/or development than others, questioning received wisdoms that Islam, authoritarianism, and underdevelopment go together. Identifying four distinct democracy and development outcomes in the Muslim world, four case studies are interrogated to show that there is more variability in democracy and development outcomes in Muslim majority countries than macro-historical studies and aggregate data have shown. By demonstrating that democracy and development outcomes in Muslim countries are the consequence of elite conflict and elite consensus, rather than the precepts or institutions of Islam, the book places the competition for power among contending elites, rather than Islam, at the center of the story of democracy and development in the Muslim world. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political development/development studies, democratization and autocratization studies, democracy promotion, and more broadly comparative politics. © 2024 Michael T. Rock and Soli Özel.
Citation Count: 11
Turkey's dilemmas
(2011) Özel, Soli; Özcan, Gencer
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which prides itself on serving as a regional model of democratic governance, often pays lip service to human rights and democratic principles in its foreign policy. Yet when dealing with politically less than attractive regional partners, the AKP will frequently maintain public silence rather than risk harm to Turkish interests, particularly economic ones. Will the more robust human-rights policy that Turkey has begun to apply in the Middle East be extended to Ankara’s dealings with other parts of the world? This remains unclear, yet it seems obvious that the principles which the present AKP government has laid down as markers for future foreign-policy activities will tend to make it increasingly costly for Turkey to turn a blind eye to human-rights abuses abroad.
Citation Count: 0
Turkey's Green Imagination: The Spatiality of the Low-Carbon Energy Transition within the EU Green Deal
(Uluslararasi Iliskiler Konseyi Dernegi, 2023) Özel, Soli; Akçalı, Emel; Ozel, Soli
This article asks the extent to which the EU Green Deal influences the EU periphery today and builds on the spatial conditions of multiple, co-existing decarbonization pathways within the EU Green Deal while problematizing the 'green imagination' of Turkey as an immediate neighbour and a candidate country for membership in the EU. As such, it uncovers that the current low-carbon transition process in Turkey is prone to be shaped by the highly politicized energy market in an authoritarian neoliberal structure on the one hand, and Turkey's priorities in energy issues and hard security on the other. The findings further reveal that Turkey's efforts to use more domestic energy resources to meet its consumption needs might also interfere with its efforts and obligations to decarbonize its energy sector. The scrutiny into the low-carbon energy transition in Turkey accordingl contributes further insight into the consequences of the spatiality of such transitions in an authoritarian neoliberal context, and what other alternative policies can be imagined and put in practice. Thus, more empirical research is warranted to reveal the spatiality of the low-carbon energy transition across various geographical settings. At the same time, the article argues that both the EU and its partners such as Turkey should be weary of creating green utopias when redesigning their green-energy space since utopias tout court may not always stimulate large-scale change in a revolutionary way in terms of sustainability, feasibility, good practice, and inclusiveness in decision-making processes.
Citation Count: 0
US-Turkey Relations since World War II: From Alliance to Transactionalism
(Oxford University Press, 2020) Güvenç, Serhat; Özel, Soli
[No abstract available]
Citation Count: 1
Democracy, development and Islam
(Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2021) Özel, Soli; Ozel, S.
Conventional wisdom suggests Islam, authoritarianism and underdevelopment go together. A panel data set tests these hypotheses and finds little empirical support for either hypothesis, although Arab Muslim countries are less democratic and grow slower than their non-Arab Muslim counterparts. An elite consensus-conflict analytical frame is used to uncover the sources of difference in democracy and development outcomes in Egypt and Indonesia, two similarly placed Muslim countries with different democracy and development outcomes. We find growth and democracy differences are the result of differences in elite cooperation on democracy and development projects. When elites are consensually united, as in Indonesia, democracy and development can go hand in hand. When elites are virtually at war with each other, as in Egypt, cooperation on a democracy project becomes almost impossible. Unfortunately, high levels of elite conflict, as in Egypt, can also spillover into state building and development strategy with disastrous consequences for development. © Gordon Crawford and Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai 2021.