Energy Regionalism; A case study of the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Document Type : مقالات علمی -پژوهشی

Authors

Mohammad Majidi ¹

Bahram AmirAhmadian ²

Mahmoud Hosseini ³

¹ Associate Professor, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Russian Studies, World Branch, Tehran University of Studies, Tehran, Iran

³ PhD student of political science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/pg.2021.70845.1055

Abstract

The discovery of gas reserves has a significant impact on the economic, geopolitical and political balance in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The development of gas fields and the motivation of government actors for possible extraction and export have led to the formation an energy region in the Eastern Mediterranean. Although in the classical theories of regionalism, the formation of a region is related to the geographical affinity and the security motivation of government actors, and social, cultural and economic factors are considered as dependent and secondary elements, in this research, an attempt has been made to consider energy as an independent factor in the formation of the region. This issue has caused the role of other actors and factors in the formation of the Eastern Mediterranean regional order to be emphasized. The main question of the article is what are the factors involved in the formation of an energy region and what effect have they had on regional security and order, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region? The hypothesis of this article is that the exploration of energy and the emergence of the energy region in the Eastern Mediterranean have caused various actors, including the market, companies and national and international regulators prevented direct geopolitical conflicts by putting pressure on the governments of the region, and provided platforms for cooperation and, in other words, indirect competition.

Keywords

Regionalism

Regionalization

Eastern Mediterranean

Legal Regulators

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