Rethinking IR through Türkiye: discourse, relationality and partnership in Africa

Türkiye’s evolving engagement with Africa offers a valuable lens to rethink international relations (IR) beyond Western-centric paradigms. This study argues that Türkiye’s foreign policy, anchored in discourses of anti-colonial solidarity and strategic autonomy, represents a potential ‘third way’ distinct from both Western conditionality and China’s economic expansionism. Through a qualitative discourse analysis of 159 official documents (2016–2025) from Turkish and African sources, the research identifies four recurrent themes: partnership and equality, humanitarianism and justice, strategic autonomy, and civilisational ties. These discursive patterns reveal Türkiye’s self-representation as a moral and cooperative partner and its perception by African leaders as a reliable and alternative actor. Drawing on postcolonial theory, world-systems analysis and relational ontology, the paper situates Türkiye as a semi-peripheral actor seeking to reform, rather than reject, the global order. While Ankara’s rhetoric often aligns with Global South aspirations, the study finds that practices in construction, religious education and security cooperation may reproduce subtle dependencies, complicating the ‘third way’ narrative. By integrating empirical evidence with theoretical reflection, the paper contributes to Global IR debates and argues that Türkiye’s Africa policy exemplifies both the promise and contradictions of semi-peripheral agency in shaping a more plural international order.