Abstract
The region of the Eastern Mediterranean has played a major role in European Energy Security for more than a century initially as a major oil transit zone for exports from the Middle East and subsequently as a significant natural gas exporter in its own right. The region's energy security evolution was always "bedeviled" by significant geopolitical risk which was endemic to the region and which led to very serious supply/transit crises that negatively affected both the European and the global economy while altering the regional balance of power. Since 2011 the partial retrenchment of US influence from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East created a power vacuum which several revisionist powers both from within and outside the region attempted to fill. Of these revisionisms the most dangerous to the region's energy development and regional stability is the one promoted by Turkey's President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan. The paper tracks the evolution of Turkish revisionism as it challenged the interests of core regional players from the UAE, Egypt and Israel while focusing on the more recent developments vis-à-vis Cyprus and Greece. It also evaluates the importance of regional energy cooperation dynamics that currently exclude Turkey as a catalyst for the emergence of counter-coalitions to Erdogan's neo-imperialism by focusing on the East Med Gas Pipeline project.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | The New Eastern Mediterranean Transformed |
Subtitle of host publication | Emerging Issues and New Actors |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
Pages | 139-158 |
Number of pages | 20 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9783030705541 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783030705534 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 19 Jun 2021 |
Keywords
- Continental shelf
- Counter-coalitions
- East Med gas pipeline
- EEZ
- Egypt
- Energy security
- Israel
- Natural gas
- Oil
- Turkish revisionism
- UAE