| Over the past two decades, the field of International Relations has become increasingly attentive to how language constructs identities, changes state interests, and makes certain actions---but not others---possible. However, despite the 'mainstreaming' of social theoretic perspectives in International Relations, the social relations analyzed are commonly the grand structures in world politics, such as the meaning of anarchy, the maintenance of global order, and the creation of security communities out of former enemies. Unfortunately, the 'social turn' in IR overlooks a crucial component of social life---the ordinary, mundane and seemingly un-noteworthy interactions that form the frequent and most common opportunity for dialogue among international actors.;This dissertation argues that seemingly un-noteworthy interactions, like the creation of an Economic Partnership Commission to enhance and deepen US-Turkish partnership shortly after 9/11, are at the core of social processes. Un-noteworthy and ordinary interactions matter, because they demonstrate how actors make their relations meaningful through the creation of a common language, through a re-engagement with the relevant past actions that form a component of their common knowledge, and through a re-positioning of their identities in terms of the other and the given socio-historical moment. In the 'everyday' politics that make up un-noteworthy interactions, actors' moves, strategies, interests and expectations come into sharper focus. This also brings a more focused attention to agency to IR social theory. In seemingly 'small' interactions, the language actors 'use' in interaction and dialogue is easier for analysts to contain, interpret and understand. Through three linguistic approaches, a discourse approach analyzing the social context following 9/11, a narrative approach that examines the 'story' of the Economic Partnership Commission and its efforts to enhance the partnership between the US and Turkey, and a language game analysis of the 'game' of meaning construction that occurred as the US and Turkey created a common language about what partnership should mean in a post-9/11 world, this dissertation enhances action-centered constructivist approaches and offers some avenues for bridging the gap alienating foreign policy analysis from social theory of IR. |
