Geopolitics of energy: the case of Turkey-rising to challenges

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1628631 (Table of Contents)

This research asks what geopolitics of energy will look like for Turkey in a global scale and provides an answer. The literature mainly focuses on the effects of Turkey’s current investments to establish East-West Energy Corridor. Many studies, though, view the East-West Energy Corridor as a corridor from East to West. From this point of view, they conclude that Turkey will become geopolitically more important in the global energy arena in near future. This thesis argues that there are some mistakes in this conclusion because of two stylized facts: 1. Turkey is increasingly dependent on energy imports and this trend is accelerating 2. The direction of energy transportation is globally changing from East- West to West-East. The literature gives mainly its focus to the first stylized fact and tries to decrease energy dependency of Turkey. However, the second stylized fact hasn’t been sufficiently discussed. Therefore, this study puts forth in Chapter 1 that the second stylized fact will have a bigger importance for the place of Turkey in global geopolitics of energy. In Chapter 2, it advances a theoretical framework on how to improve a solution to possible problems that can stem from the second stylized fact. In Chapter 3, I apply the theory to Turkey’s energy policies and determine how the theory relates to the current state of energy policies in Turkey. Finally, in Chapter 4, I suggest three possible scenarios and discuss those in terms of the theory advanced in Chapter 2. This thesis also contributes to the literature by stratifying strategicl mentality in decisionmaking mechanism. This stratification helps me to understand the path of Turkey in energy policies.