Branding a Potential Energy Hub as National Interest in the Eastern Mediterranean: More Than an Energy Supply Issue

Abstract

As the global energy demand has been growing, the balance of the international system seems to shud der. Energy issues have become pivotal for national strategy. For example, Russia is challenging US primacy by using its energy resources, the US is trying to become an oil and gas net exporter, and China is striving to ensure influence in rich natural resources territories to secure energy supplies for its development. The authors argue that energy issues have set up a new chessboard of power on which countries improve their status, no matter whether they are energy importers or exporters. Such countries as Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, and Egypt are pursuing, without being major energy producers, to brand themselves as ideal regional “energy hubs” to serve national interest. Self-branding is not only a matter of declaration. It is primarily a matter of the energy major players recognizing this branding. It is this recognition that is the decisive moment that the countries concerned tip over the energy chess game by turning their aspirations into something more than an energy supply issue.