My PhD dissertation focused on tracing the constructions of European identity in the EU’s enlargement discourses in the post- Cold War period. On the basis of this research, I have argued that while the European identity is dependent on the construction of peripheral states as different, the representations of difference take a variety of forms, leading to a number of forms of Othering. Focusing on EU discourses towards Central and Eastern European states, Morocco and Turkey, I have developed a typology of Self/Other relations, delineating the different dimensions of variation. This research and theoretical framework was published first in Review of International Studies in 2004 and later in my monograph, Constructing Regional Community and Order in Europe and Southeast Asia in 2007.

My subsequent work on European identity has focused on analyzing how European identity is negotiated in the interactions between the EU and outsider states, especially Turkey. I have analyzed this negotiation process between EU and Turkey in an article I wrote for Insight Turkey in 2008, and also in my monograph, Constructing Regional Community and Order in Europe and Southeast Asia. With Viacheslav Morozov, we have comparatively analyzed the ways in which Russia and Turkey react to, contest, and negotiate the representations of their identities as ‘outsiders’ to Europe (published in Cooperation and Conflict in 2012). My most recent analyses of the identity dimension in EU-Turkey relations can be found in an overview chapter on constructivist approaches, co-authored with Senem Aydin-Duzgit, in the edited volume EU-Turkey Relations –Theories, Institutions, and Policies and in the chapter I wrote on ‘Constructivism and the Role of ‘the Other’ in EU External Action’ in the edited volume Studying the European Union’s External Action: Concepts, Approaches, Theories.

Beyond the EU-Turkey relationship, I have contributed to a volume taking stock of European identity research (European Identity Revisited) with a co-authored chapter on the contributions of European identity research to constructivist IR theory. I have also edited a reader on European Identity (Who are the European? What is Europe?), published in the Debating Europe series of Open Society Institute. I

More recently, as a partner in the H2020 project on The Future of EU-Turkey Relations (FEUTURE), and in collaboration with Senem Aydin Duzgit at Sabancı University, I have conducted a longue-duree historical discourse analysis on the evolution of identity representations in Turkey and Europe of one another. With the aid of a research team (Seckin Baris Gulmez, Alp Eren Topal, and Johanna Chovanec), we have traced the evolution of identity representations between Turkey (Ottoman Empire) and Europe focusing on 20 key developments since 1815 to present. Our analysis of the identity representations surrounding the abolishment of the Caliphate in Turkey in 1924 has formed the basis of an article (published in Interventions in 2020) detailing the historical discursive continuities with the representations of Turkey’s identity and role during the Arab spring uprisings.  We have also contributed to the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of EU-Middle East Relations with a chapter summarizing the identity interactions between Ottoman Empire and Europe. An overall synopsis of the research carried out for the project can be found in the edited volume Turkey and European Union: Key Dynamics and Future Scenarios (2021).

The latest output of this collaborative interest in the history of identity constructions between Turkey and Europe, is an article, co-authored with Senem Aydin-Duzgit and Alp Eren Topal, and published in the European Journal of International Relations, which analyzes how myths about 19th century Ottoman Empire-Europe relations figure in President Erdogan’s foreign policy discourse, and how these myths can be debunked with alternative critical readings of history.