The Eastern Mediterranean: Critical Views on Region-making and the New Geopolitics of Energy

Abstract

Regions are tools of power contestation among state and non-state actors in the security, economic and symbolic realms. The Eastern Mediterranean is a new region in the making through emerging rivalries and alliances among traditional and new actors, at the local, national and transnational scales. This panel aims to critically assess the dynamics of region-making in the Eastern Mediterranean from a relational perspective, and to contribute to the understanding of the politics of region-making with an actor- and issue-based approach. The presentations specifically focus on how geopolitics of energy has become part of regional politics through an analysis of geopolitics of natural gas and renewable energy. Thus, unlike the arguments of the liberal theory that expects cooperation, these papers demonstrate how energy issues have become part of regional geopolitics and entangle with domestic power struggles. Individual presentations focus on either the shifting positions of traditional actors such as Turkey, Greece, Egypt, or recent newcomers, such as China as well as Iran. The recent discoveries of natural gas in the region have locked Turkey and Greece into a new geopolitical rivalry with concomitant geopolitical narratives and frames which in turn are linked with domestic political concerns as well as perceptions of shifting global and regional context (Altunisik). The tone of engagement of Iran with the Eastern Mediterranean and its new actorness reflects the power dynamics in its domestic politics and its recent emergence in the geopolitics of energy through acquiring port facilities in the region (Gocer). Similarly, China’s engagement with the region cannot be analyzed independently of its domestic politico-economic concerns and expansion of its geoeconomics presence in the region as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (Ergenc). The involvement of regional actors with transnational financial regimes during the so-called green transitions in Egypt and to some extent in the Sudan, on the other hand, allows us to analyze the making of the Eastern Mediterranean region at a global scale (Hoffmann).

Title	Details
Foreign Policy as an Identity Marker: Turkey, the European Other and the Eastern Mediterranean Conundrum	View Paper Details
Babel of Meanings: Turkey's Syrian Border and its Diverse Articulations	View Paper Details
Double Transformation: China’s Green Investment in the Eastern Mediterranean	View Paper Details