A political ethnography: the political struggles of Turkey's efforts to join the European Union

When we talk about border studies, it's almost impossible to escape the images of immigrants crossing the desert along the US-Mexico border; it is understandable why that is (immigration crisis, violence, etc.). Nonetheless, there are other borders, physically and politically, not as prominent but worth knowing about. On March 11, 2020, Dr. Bilge Firat, a UTEP Assistant Professor of Anthropology, talked about her book 'Diplomacy and lobbying during Turkey’s Europeanization' on global diplomacy and lobbying, and how, what started as a negotiation to integrate Turkey into the European Union, yielded completely different results. Lobbyists and diplomats driving diplomatic negotiations more to maintain their place within the diplomatic apparatus than to reach a resolution to join the EU. Turkey is too poor, too big, and too Muslim, opponents argue. Looking at the performative nature of the diplomatic efforts taking place in Brussels, provides a point of comparison when exploring the also 'symbolically loaded' actions of the border security initiatives in this region. This lecture was an invitation to 'study up' the dynamics of our border, without neglecting the other directions.