Secrecy and the Study of International History: Missing Dimension in Turkish Foreign Policy

Abstract

The study of international history largely depends on an exploitation of hithertounexplored data. The sources of these data could vary from national archives toprivate papers to semi-structured interviews and so on. An examination of thehistoriography of Turkish Foreign Policy requires the employing of a rigorousmethodology to unearth novel data to feed into current academic debates.Students of international history should be advised of possible logistic andmethodological flaws and obstacles in the process. This article examines theselogistical and methodological obstacles to conducting archival research forhistoriographical studies.