ABSTRACT
In this double interview, Ole Frahm and Dirk Lehmkuhl examine the connections between populism and foreign policy. They argue that this aspect is comparatively less studied because the practical implications for domestic politics, and concerns about the newly emerging forms of aggressive nationalism, obscured the view of the international dimension of populism. Focusing on Turkey, they observe how in the 2000s an increasing focus on the former Ottoman territories was meant to provide a steppingstone for Turkey to become a vital regional power with a seat at the big powers’ table. They explain that Erdoğan portrayed his party (AKP) as standing in the tradition of the Ottoman Empire, thus managing to transpose a populist template of claiming to represent the ‘real people’ in opposition to the ‘old elites’ into the realm of foreign policy. Finally, by comparing three countries with an imperial past such as Russia, United Kingdom and France, they argue that in each of these cases right-wing populism promoted a neo-imperialist agenda, but with some crucial differences.
