Regional maritime security in the Eastern Mediterranean: Expectations and reality (original) (raw)

The Eastern Mediterranean: Towards a Coordinated Maritime Security Environment (just not right now

ISA 2019 Annual meeting , 2019

Recent developments in the Eastern Mediterranean create strong incentives for greater interstate coordination in the maritime domain there, though current state preferences are expected to limit the gamut of joint action. Yet, the nature of early 21 st century maritime security challenges in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as the expected inability of unilateral state action to resolve them, suggest that in the medium to long terms we should expect these conditions to lead to a more unified regional action in order to achieve maritime security. Indeed, early signs of such action are already visible.

Rethinking East Mediterranean Security : Powers , Allies & International

2017

the Coasts C.Proportionality D.Islands 1.Islands 'On the Wrong Side' 2.Island State E. Security and Navigation Factors F.Economic Factors: Joint Maritime Development Regime 1.The Characteristics of a Joint Maritime Development Regime 2.Designing a Joint Development Area 3.Maritime Joint Development Regime XI. The Arctic Model XII. Conclusion * Asst. Professor and Vice Dean of the Law Faculty at Cag University/Turkey. My deepest gratitude and thanks to "The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey" in providing a postdoctoral scholarship to complete my academic research at the University of Miami School of Law related to maritime delimitation issues.

The new balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

The geopolitical developments in the Middle East and Eastern Europe influence the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Three significant parameters have shifted the geopolitical status of the region: (a) the European Union’s policies to diversify its energy supplies in order to reduce its reliance on Russian gas (b) the Turkish policies and actions in Eastern Mediterranean and (c) the threat of the expansion of Islamic extremism in Mediterranean.

THE ALIGNMENT OF ALLIANCES IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGARDING THE ENERGY/MARITIME SECURITY ISSUES DURING THE COLD WAR, AND TURKEY'S EMERGING ROLE IN TODAY'S POWER GAME

Energy and maritime history affairs have played particularly important parts in the alignment of regional and international relations in the Eastern Mediterranean, and Turkey has played an important regional role in all these matters. This study examines how dynamic strategic alliances and regional relations in the Eastern Mediterranean have been regulated in terms of energy and maritime security issues during the Cold War period and the role of Turkey. The case studies were analyzed in light of a hybrid theoretical approach in which neorealist and neoliberal approaches to energy security are evaluated together. It also examines the current " energy and maritime security-related " great/regional power game in the Eastern Mediterranean analyzing the case studies and the hybrid approach.

Maritime security: Redefining regional order in a new security environment

A sea of opportunities: Exploring cooperation between Turkey and the West in the Black Sea, 2024

This chapter is part of a report on the prospects for enhanced cooperation between Turkey and Western countries in the Black Sea region in the new geopolitical setting following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Structural challenges and paradigm shifts. The new geopolitics of the Mediterranean Sea.

The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, 2021

After years in which the brinkmanship policies of assertive regional players and ambitious external powers have destabilized the Mediterranean Sea, the new geopolitics of the region is gradually taking shape. This Hybrid CoE Strategic Analysis looks at how structural factors and recent geopolitical shifts are producing a flurry of realignments, and how they tend to reopen old wounds or result in new frozen conflicts. Around them, regional and global powers compete to reap the benefits of the end of the US hegemony.

The Mediterranean and Black Sea: regional integration and maritime nationalism

Marine Policy, 2002

Cooperation is the core mechanism in UNCLOS for the management of enclosed and semi-enclosed seas. There is a sizeable history of cooperation between the coastal States in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea based on politics and socio-economics, but conditions have changed greatly over the last 20 years. The processes of regional integration, centred, fundamentally, on the northern shore, and expressions of nationalism, including maritime nationalism, are shaping a new stage on which to strive for the cooperative system which is essential for the governance of a sea where sharp imbalances and demographic pressure that, in the short term, point to a significant worsening of environmental conditions, coexist.

Contemporary Status of Maritime Zones in Southeastern Mediterranean in the light of energy antagonism, NATO Maritime Interdiction Training Centre (NMIOTC) Journal, 2nd Issue, Dec 2015, ISSN: 2241-438X.

In summary, the analysis taken place in this article, examined the new geopolitical aspect of the Mediterranean Sea, and, particularly what is currently happening in its Eastern basin. The main focus-point was the geopolitical implications of the recent discoveries of significant energy reserves in this region. The discovered hydrocarbon reserves of the Southeastern Med can and should play an important role in supplying the EU with natural gas in the long run. Therefore, the neighboring states of Eastern Med, especially Cyprus, Israel, Greece and Turkey, should seek to maximize their role as alternative suppliers of the European Union. This prospect, with the expected future outcome of providing the first non-Russian gas of the so-called southern European energy corridor, imposes considerable benefits, particularly in relation to potential European funding for a pipeline construction (Eastern Med Pipeline), which will transfer to Central and Western Europe large amounts of natural gas, as well as other relevant projects. For the time being the main issue at stake is that the energy resources near Cyprus can be exploited for the energy security of EU. Other important protagonists of the international arena are also part of the complex equation, with NATO and EU standing out. Therefore, the first conclusion to be drawn here is that geopolitical confrontations and changes in the region will continue in the near future. Nevertheless, linked to the geopolitical dimension there is one more essential parameter; that of International Law of the Sea. UNCLOS provides the necessary framework to define the limits of maritime boundaries between adjacent states, since it is the core document of international conventional law, which regulates issues related to the establishment and delimitation of ΕΕΖs. For the moment the question of delimitation of maritime zone boundaries in Southeastern Med remains a point of friction for many of the states involved in. The abovementioned analysis highlighted, inter alia, the decisions made from the Republic of Cyprus and their conformity with international law provisions. Now, it is the turn of the Greek government to take decisive action upon the question of the EEZ in full conformity with international law and in trusting cooperation with its neighboring states, since there are many interested parts meeting in the region, as well as other important protagonists of the international arena with NATO and EU standing out.

Asymmetric Threats to Eastern Mediterranean Cooperation

2015

(...) To protect oil and gas facilities, the four countries need to have well trained and flexible Special Forces, up-to-date intelligent units, powerful air forces and navies. The armies and their units must have the capacity to guard and defend the pipeline or the facilities at any given time and against any threat. Eastern Mediterranean is a place where maritime security plays an integral role in political and military calculations to achieve energy security. All four countries are called to defend the status quo and their territorial integrity.

Maritime Regional Security Governance in the Atlantic: Antagonisms, Overlaps and Cooperation

Nação e Defesa, 2023

The Atlantic Basin is a strategic economic and security space, governed by a complex regional architecture composed of multiple organisations and initiatives. This article exa- mines the relationships between the main regional governance structures in the field of maritime security, and identifies two patterns among them. The first pattern is a divisive rivalry between North and South Atlantic, which materialises in the politicised antago-nism between the mutually exclusive North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Zone of Peace and Security of the South Atlantic as well as a competitive overlap between the Organisation of American States and the Union of South American Nations. The sec-ond pattern is cooperative interregionalism where overlapping organisations and initia-tives are able to complement each other due to a functional approach. However, interre-gional cooperation cannot compensate for institutional shortcomings that impede a sustained and effective coordination of mari-time security efforts in the broader Atlantic basin