The international political economy of energy security in the Eastern Mediterranean

In this study, it is aimed to make a critical evaluation of the current energy security situation in the Eastern Mediterranean with the understanding of International Political Economy. The concepts of economy and policy should be considered together and the international dimension should be included, the existence of non-state and non-regional actors, the concept of securitization; With these understandings adopted by the UPE discipline, the current situation in the Eastern Mediterranean has been tried to be discussed. Moving from the point of re-evaluation of the energy security problem in the Eastern Mediterranean beyond the classical international relations understandings, a study has been carried out on why the issue should be handled with the understanding of UPE. Within the framework of the understandings adopted by the UPE discipline, it has been tried to convey that the current situation in the Eastern Mediterranean is a situation of securitization. Based on these points, in the first part of the thesis, the concepts of UPE discipline, English School, Securitization and Interdependence were explained and the theoretical framework of the study was tried to be formed. Then, in order to reveal a situation of securitization in the current situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, in the second part, with the historical background of the Eastern Mediterranean tension, an analysis was carried out on the mutual relations between Turkey-Greece-Cyprus, attention was drawn to the Arab Spring process in the relations, and readings on Egypt and Libya were discussed and conveyed. Then, the energy geopolitics and policies in Syria, Israel and Egypt in the Eastern Mediterranean were tried to be given. In the third part of the study, the activities of the USA, France and Russia on energy security in the region are discussed in order to reveal the international dimension. At the same time, attention was drawn to the corporatization of non-state actors and states, which became more active with globalization and included in the understanding adopted by the UPE understanding, and the existence of non-state actors was tried to be conveyed by mentioning both their position in the inclusion of the international dimension and their roles in the Eastern Mediterranean. Finally, it has been tried to reveal how all the actors in the Eastern Mediterranean perceive energy security and what policies they implement, and how the actors perceive energy security in different dimensions.