Is International Trade an Indispensable Instrument of Foreign Policy?

Abstract

The article proposes that international trade is an indispensable instrument of foreign policy and DEİK’s governmentalization is the epitome of this instrumentalization. The case is unique in that a state appropriates an NGO whose mission is international trade. The research enquires about the validity of the assumption of trade’s indispensability for foreign policy and vice versa. An in-depth interview methodology is assumed to configure causality. The hypothesis argues, that if institutionalized international trade’s indispensability for foreign policy is true, then this direct state intervention is suggestive of the degree of importance, that international trade and foreign policy have, vis-à-vis each other. This act of governmentalization, again by the unique way it was effectuated, the new status created, seems to render all underlying causes other than the significance given to institutionalized trade as an instrument of foreign policy and vice versa, rather marginal. The case is not only a de facto but also a de jure act of instrumentalization.