In or out the SWANA region? Intermittent transregionalism and Turkey’s ‘adhocratic governance’ in Lebanon

This paper investigates Turkey’s strategic positioning within the Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) region by introducing the concept of “intermittent transregionalism” through a case study of Turkish-Lebanese relations. While existing literature predominantly frames Turkey’s role as a neo-Ottoman leadership or a regional Islamic influence, this study challenges the notion of a stable and coherent regional identity that could lead to a fixed positioning in a specific region. Instead, it argues that Turkey’s transregional engagement is characterised by a fluctuation that is shaped by adhocratic governance. Building on a theoretical framework that links adhocracy to state-led cross-border kinship claims, the paper conceptualises Turkey’s oscillation in and out of the SWANA region through adhocratic practices, including developmental projects, humanitarian aid, socio-cultural initiatives and media framing. These measures function both as isolated interventions and as a broader governmental technique, reflecting strategic state calculations. The paper contributes by challenging rigid Global North–Global South dichotomies and offering the concept of intermittent transregionalism as a tool to understand the elasticity of state identities and governing practices. Using qualitative analysis of two decades of Turkish-Lebanese relations, it shows that Turkey’s transregionalism is a deliberate, strategic form of statecraft that redefines traditional spatial and identity-based understandings of regionalism.