I CYCLE, YOU CYCLE

This thesis investigates the factors that affect the policy transfer regarding circular economy between Turkey and the Netherlands and analyses the role of consular diplomacy within this context. Many governments nowadays are looking for ways to turn their linear economy into a circular one. The European Commission recently introduced the New Grean Deal, to accelerate Europe's transition to a CE. At the same time, the Netherlands has drawn up its own Circular Economy Action Plan to achieve a fully circular economy by 2050. Both plans stress the importance of international cooperation. Policy transfer is a method used to transfer policy and knowledge from one context to another. In recent years, the increase in globalisation in particular has highlighted the importance of international cooperation for complex problems, such as the transition to a circular economy. This is also emphasised in the Circular Economy Action Plan of the Netherlands, which aims to have a fully circular economy by 2050. Since 2018, the Dutch Consulate - General in Istanbul has been carrying out activities regarding the transfer of Dutch expertise on circular economy to Turkey. However, this is a process that is uncertain given the differences between the countries. As a result, there is a need for insight into the opportunities and obstacles that arise during this process. By means of document analysis and 15 in-depth interviews, insight has been gained into the dimensions of the CE-policy transfer process between Turkey and the Netherlands. In each dimension, factors that have an effect on the process were examined. Existing studies on policy transfer provide virtually no insight into how factors affect each other; there is also a lack of insight into the role of consular diplomacy within this process. For example, the research showed that dimensions such as the current environment are not independent but also depend on factors within other dimensions. The research resulted in a framework in which it is indicated how the dimensions: actor motive, current environment, actor relationship and consular diplomacy, affect the degree of adoption, the type of transfer and thus the policy transfer process. To what extent the policy transfer leads to the actual realization of circular economy in Turkey, has yet to be discovered on the basis of a long-term study.