![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Turkey's geopolitical position at the intersection of numerous conflict-laden regions has compelled Ankara to prioritize hard security concerns in defining its foreign and domestic policies. While these concerns will maintain their significance, new global threats and opportunities, particularly in energy security, climate change, and sustainability, necessitate a reconceptualization of security. This study posits that this new conceptualization must be more comprehensive by integrating these new challenges into conceptions security. After presenting pressing transformations in the energy security and climate change realm, the critical puzzle that the article will explore is Turkey's main challenges and opportunities in meeting its rapidly increasing energy needs on the one hand and facing mounting climate change and sustainability-related risks on the other. Moreover, the study will examine the domestic and foreign policy implications of these transformations in times of global changes and uncertainties.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Belgin San Akça, Koç University and Chris Alden, LSE and Buğra Süsler, LSE for their valuable feedback regarding this study and Zehra Yağmur Yılmaz for her able assistance in editing. I also would like thank LSE Ideas Program for facilitating the relevant international research interactions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 World Meteorological Organization, “United in Science.”
2 International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy security.
3 Ibid.
4 European Commission, Climate Action.
5 Homer-Dixon, “On the Threshold.”
6 Dinar, “Water, Security, Conflict” and Månsson, “Energy, Conflict.”
7 Buzan et al., Security; Yergin, The New Map; and San-Akca et al., “Does Natural Gas ?”
8 Bryant, International Handbook; Robbins, Political Ecology; and Peet, Robbins and Watts, Global political Ecology.
9 Axon and Darton, “Sustainability.”
10 Diez, Von Lucke, and Wellmann, The Securitisation, and von Lucke, The Securitisation.
11 Dalby, “Rethinking Geopolitics.”
12 Erşen and Çelikpala, “Turkey and the Changing”; Bilgin, “Turkey's Energy Strategy”; Kubicek, “Energy Politics”; and Austvik and Rzayeva, “Turkey in the geopolitics.”
13 Işeri, “Addressing”; Ipek, “Oil and Intra-State Conflict”; Yılmaz and Sever-Mehmetoglu, “Energy Dynamics”; and Demiryol, “Between security and Prosperity.”
14 Toke and Vezirgiannidou, “The relationship”; Özkaynak, Turhan and Aydın, “The Politics of Energy”; Oksay and Iseri, “A new energy paradigm”; and Bayülgen, “Byzantine Energy Politics.”
15 In approaching the research question, particularly in terms of identifying relevant energy security and sustainability challenges, in addition to examining the secondary literature, I utilized a variety of data and reports prepared by international and state-level agencies, including the International Energy Agency (IEA), European Commission, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), OECD, World Economic Forum, the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, and Republic of Türkiye Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK).
16 Bilgin, “Turkey's Energy Strategy.”
17 For a more extensive discussion different aspects of this debate, see Schröder et al., Turkey as an Energy Hub?, 203–19.
18 International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy security.
19 Republic of Türkiye Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK).
20 US Department of Commerce, Turkey.
21 Ellinas, “Turkey Finds.”
22 TC Enerji ve Tabi Kaynaklar Bakanlığı, ETKB 2019-2023, and Turkish Foreign Ministry, Turkey's Energy Strategy 2023.
23 Schröder et al., Turkey as an Energy Hub?, 203–19.
24 Yılmaz and Sever-Mehmetoğlu, “Energy Dynamics.”
25 Kubicek, “Strictly Pragmatism.”
26 European Commission, “In focus.”
27 Primakov, Турция.
28 Global Relations Forum, Turkish Energy Strategy.
29 Siddi, “The Scramble.”
30 Erşen and Çelikpala, “Turkey and the Changing.”
31 Öniş and Yılmaz, “Turkey and Russia” and Köstem, “The Political Economy.”
32 Grigoriadis, “Energy Discoveries” and Ediger, Devlen, and Bingöl, “Levant'ta büyük oyun.”
33 Christou and Adamides, “Energy Security.”
34 Rubin and Eiran, “Regional Maritime Security.”
35 Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), “Solutions.”
36 Akanda et al., “The Tigris-Euphrates.”
37 FAO, Turkey Country Report.
38 Roba, “The Environmental Impact.”
39 Water Politics, “The Rising Tide.”
40 Ibid.
41 The Guardian, “Turkey's Great Leap.”
42 Ibid.
43 World Bank, “Turkey –National Basin.”
44 OECD, OECD Environmental Performance.
45 Harmancioglu et al., Irrigation.
46 The Economist, “Sea Snot.”
47 OECD, Water and Agriculture.
48 United Nations, “United Nations Sustainable Development.”
49 World Economic Forum, Global Risks.
50 Republic of Turkey, Climate Change.
51 International Energy Agency, “Turkey 2021.”
52 International Clean Coal, “Clean Coal.”
53 Turkish Foreign Ministry, Turkey’s Energy Strategy 2023.
54 European Commission, “In Focus.”
55 Colantoni et al., Energy and Climate Security.
56 International Energy Agency, Key World, 59–69.
57 YEGM, Energy Efficiency.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Şuhnaz Yılmaz
Şuhnaz Yılmaz is a Professor of International Relations and serves as the Dean of the College of Administrative Sciences and Economics and Director of the Graduate School of Business at Koç University, Istanbul. She received her PhD from Princeton University in 2000 and conducted her post-doctoral studies at Harvard University. She has numerous publications on foreign policy analysis, energy politics, and diplomatic history in prestigious journals such as International Politics, Middle East Journal, Political Science Quarterly, and Energy Research and Social Sciences. She is the author of Turkish-American Relations (1800–1952): Between the Stars, Stripes and the Crescent (Routledge, 2015). She served as the principal investigator of the Horizon 2020 Project FEUTURE on Turkey-European Union relations at Koc University (2017–2019).