Foreign Policy as Nation Making: Turkey and Egypt in the Cold War

386 Pages·2019·4.301 MB·English

by  Reem Abou-El-Fadl

Foreign Policy as Nation
Making
After the Second World War, Turkey and Egypt were among the most
dynamicactorsintheMiddleEast.Their1950sforeignpoliciespresented
apuzzle,however:Turkey’sDemocratPartypursuedNATOmembership
and sponsored the pro-Western Baghdad Pact regionally, while Egypt’s
FreeOfficerspromotedneutralismandpan-Araballiances.Thisbookasks
why:whatexplainsthisdivergenceinasharedhistoricalspace?Rethinking
foreign policy as an important site for the realisation of nationalist
commitments, Abou-El-Fadl finds the answer in the contrasting nation
making projects pursued by the two leaderships, each politicised
differentlythroughexperiencesofwar,imperialismandunderdevelopment.
Drawing on untapped Turkish and Arabic sources, and critically engaging
withtheoriesofpostcolonialnationalism,sheemphasiseslocalactors’agency
in striving to secure national belonging, sovereignty and progress in the
internationalfield.Heranalysisshedslightonthecontemporarylegaciesof
thedecadewhichcementedTurkey’spositionintheWesternblocandEgypt’s
reputationasArableader.
reem abou-el-fadl is Lecturer in the Department of Politics and
International Studies at SOAS, University of London. Before moving to
SOAS,shewasLectureratDurhamUniversityandJarvisDoctorowJunior
Research Fellow in International Relations and the Middle East at the
UniversityofOxford.
TheGlobalMiddleEast
GeneralEditors
ArshinAdib-Moghaddam,SOAS,UniversityofLondon
AliMirsepassi,NewYorkUniversity
EditorialAdvisoryBoard
FaisalDevji,UniversityofOxford
JohnHobson,UniversityofSheffield
FiroozehKashani-Sabet,UniversityofPennsylvania
ZacharyLockman,NewYorkUniversity
MadawiAl-Rasheed,LondonSchoolofEconomicsandPoliticalScience
DavidRyan,UniversityCollegeCork,Ireland
The Global Middle East series seeks to broaden and deconstruct the
geographical boundaries of the ‘Middle East’ as a concept to include
North Africa, Central and South Asia, and diaspora communities in
WesternEuropeandNorthAmerica.The seriesfeaturesfresh scholar-
shipthatemploystheoreticallyrigorousandinnovativemethodological
frameworksresonatingacrossrelevantdisciplinesinthehumanitiesand
thesocialsciences.Inparticular,thegeneraleditorswelcomeapproaches
thatfocusonmobility,theerosionofnation-statestructures,travelling
ideasandtheories,transcendentaltechno-politics,thedecentralisationof
grand narratives, and thedislocation ofideologies inspired by popular
movements. The series will also consider translations of works by
authorsintheseregionswhoseideasaresalienttoglobalscholarlytrends
buthaveyettobeintroducedtotheAnglophoneacademy.
Otherbooksintheseries:
1. TransnationalisminIranianPoliticalThought:TheLifeandTimes
ofAhmadFardid,AliMirsepassi
2. Psycho-nationalism: Global Thought, Iranian Imaginations,
ArshinAdib-Moghaddam
3. IranianCosmopolitanism:ACinematicHistory,GolbargRekabtalaei
4. Money, Markets and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council
and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East,
AdamHanieh
5. Iran’s Troubled Modernity: Debating Ahmad Fardid’s Legacy,
AliMirsepassi
6. Foreign Policy as Nation Making: Turkey and Egypt in the Cold
War,ReemAbou-El-Fadl
Foreign Policy as Nation
Making
Turkey and Egypt in the Cold War
reem abou-el-fadl
SchoolofOrientalandAfricanStudies,UniversityofLondon
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108475044
DOI:10.1017/9781108566025
©ReemAbou-El-Fadl2019
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
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Firstpublished2019
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyTJInternationalLtd.PadstowCornwall
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Abou-El-Fadl,Reem,author.
Title:Foreignpolicyasnationmaking:TurkeyandEgyptintheColdWar/Reem
Abou-El-Fadl.
Othertitles:GlobalMiddleEast(Cambridge,England);6.
Description: Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge
University Press, 2019. | Series: The Global Middle East ; 6 | Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2018024272|ISBN9781108475044
Subjects:LCSH:Turkey–Foreignrelations–1918–1960.|Nationalism–Turkey–
History–20thcentury.|Turkey–Politicsandgovernment–1918–1960.|Egypt–
Foreignrelations–20thcentury.|Nationalism–Egypt–History–20thcentury.|
Egypt–Politicsandgovernment–20thcentury.
Classification:LCCDR477.A292019|DDC327.56106209/045–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2018024272
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Contents
ListofFigures pagevi
Acknowledgements vii
ListofAbbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 EmpireandNationalisminTurkeyandEgypt,1839–1950 39
2 TheDemocratsinOpposition:Imagininga‘LittleAmerica’ 74
3 TheFreeOfficersinOpposition:ImaginingRevolution 101
4 Turkey’sAccessiontoNATO,1950–2:Members
ofthe‘FreeWorld’ 123
5 NeutralismandPan-ArabisminEgypt,1952–4:
SecuringSovereignty 147
6 TurkeyandtheBaghdadPact,1955:‘Freeing’
theMiddleEast 178
7 EgyptfromtheBaghdadPacttoCzechArms,1955:
ShieldingSovereignty 204
8 TurkeyandtheSyrianCrisis,1957:LinkingSpheres 233
9 EgyptfromSueztoSyrianUnion,1956–8:
SovereignAction 259
ComparativeConclusions 287
Bibliography 321
Index 361
v
Figures
2.1 Turkey’sfirstthreepresidents:KemalAtatürk,IsmetInönü
andCelâlBayar,1935 page81
2.2 DemocratPartyelectionposter,1950 88
3.1 NassercarryingtheEgyptianflagatMilitaryCollege,
25June1936 108
3.2 Nasser’shandwrittennotesentitledAl-Wad‘Al-
Siyasi(‘ThePoliticalSituation’),1954 119
4.1 ‘TurkishsoldiersbravethecoldweatherinKorea’,1950 131
5.1 Commemorativestampsfrom1953to1954 155
6.1 FrontcoverofTurkey’sPresidentCelâlBayar’sTripto
AmericapublishedbyRecepBilginerandMehmetAli
Yalçınin1954 186
7.1 Cartoon:‘AbdelNassersaid:“Egyptwillnotberuledfrom
MoscownorLondon.”TheIronCurtainthatEgypthasset
up.’Al-Akhbar,13September1954 219
8.1 DemocratPartyelectionpamphlet,1957 235
8.2 USPresidentDwightD.EisenhowermeetswithTurkish
PresidentCelâlBayarandPrimeMinisterAdnan
Menderes,1959 258
9.1 Cartoon:‘FillingtheVacuum!’,Al-Akhbar,
21March1957 273
9.2 NasserspeakinginCairoafterhiselectionpresidentofthe
UnitedArabRepublic,22February1958 285
vi
Acknowledgements
It is my pleasure to thank all those who made the completion of this
work possible. First, it has been my great privilege to enjoy the
undergraduate teaching, MPhil and DPhil supervision, and
mentorship ever since of James Piscatori. His insights and example
have been an inspiration and I am profoundly grateful to him for his
continuing support. My good fortune continued with a co-supervisor
in Louise Fawcett, whose encouragement and critical feedback made
anenormousdifferencetomyfinalyearsofdoctoralresearch.Iamalso
most grateful to my external examiners, Raymond Hinnebusch and
PhilipRobins,whogavemetheconfidencetotaketheprojectforward.
Thefieldworkforthisbookspannedadecadeintheend,andIthank
allthosewhosupportedmeonsomanytripsandarchivaladventures.
I owe a debt of gratitude to Celia Kerslake for her rigorous Turkish
instructionatOxfordduringmyMPhil,withoutwhichIcouldnothave
begun this study. Likewise, this work could not have been completed
without all those who graciously granted me interviews and often
provided me with reading suggestions or material: they are
acknowledged in my bibliography. Special thanks go to Helmi
Sha‘rawi and Abd al-Qadir Yassin for sharing with me so much of
theirtime,andsomanyoftheirinsightsandmemoriesof1950sEgypt.
For their generous help with introductions and advice during my
fieldwork trips to Cairo, my deep thanks go to Omar Abul Seoud,
Tewfik Aclimandos, Mona Qassem and Mustafa al-Shimi. I warmly
thank Hoda Abdel Nasser for generously sharing primary materials
withme,andforgrantingmepermissiontoreprintthemhere.
My deep thanks go to the archivists who helped me in Turkey and
Egypt,especiallyMmeNadiaatDaral-Watha’iq,andthestaffofDar
al-Kutub in Cairo, the Republican Archives in Ankara, and the Milli
Kütüphane and Bog˘aziçi University Library in Istanbul. In the UK,
I thank Oxford Middle East Centre librarian Mastan Ebtehaj, and
vii
viii Acknowledgements
thestaffattheAsianandAfricanStudiesReadingRoomattheBritish
Library, and at the National Archives in Kew. I also thank Tom
Hercock for assisting me with access to the BBC Written Archives in
Reading. In France I thank the staff at the National Archives at La
Courneuve.
I acknowledge here with gratitude the Middle East Centre of St
Antony’s College, the Department of Politics and International
Relations, and St Edmund Hall at Oxford University, as well as the
British Institute at Ankara, each of which provided me with an
academichomeandfinancialsupportforthisproject.Iwasfortunate
toworkamongstvibrantcommunitiesofscholarsatOxford,Durham
and SOAS while completing this book, and I warmly thank my
supportivecolleaguesineachplace.
Manydearfriendsandcolleagueshavereadandcommentedonthis
manuscriptas itevolved from itsthesis origins. Iam gratefulto them
all:toAs‘adAbuKhalil,Ays¸eKadıog˘lu,Res¸atKasaba,AlexKazamias,
Kerem Öktem, Rahul Rao, Paul Sedra and Sami Zubaida for reading
specificchapters,andtoMichaelBuehlerandJackCorbettforhelping
me with their framing. For her title inspiration, I thank Katerina
Dalacoura. For fruitful discussions around thebook’sthemes I thank
Walter Armbrust, Jacqueline Braveboy-Wagner, Çag˘lar Keyder,
Bahgat Korany, Kalypso Nicolaidis, Baskın Oran and Erik Zürcher.
For their uplifting enthusiasm and support with the process of
publication,IwarmlythankKeremÖktemandAviShlaim.AtSOAS
IwasextremelyfortunatetofindinSalwaIsmailandCharlesTripptwo
warm and experienced guides to the finishing line: I thank them for
their valuable insights and extensive comments on the manuscript at
a critical time. For their continued support with this book and many
othermatters,IfondlythankEvrimAltintas¸,FrancescaBurke,Mehmet
Karlı,MariaKonstantinidouandChristopheSevin-Allouet.
AtCambridgeUniversityPress,mythanksgotoeditorJohnHaslam
forhisearlyinterestinthisproject,andtoserieseditorsArshinAdib-
MoghaddamandAliMirsepassifortakingitonwithsuchenthusiasm.
I sincerely appreciate their confidence in the project and their warm
welcomeintotheGlobalMiddleEastseries.Itwasthenarealpleasure
to work with commissioning editor Maria Marsh and her colleagues
Abigail Walkington and Ruth Boyes, as well as with Nick James,
Jayavel Radhakrishnan and Carol Fellingham Webb, all of whom
have been meticulous and positive throughout. I am also grateful to