| Summary: | This
paper has the goal of contributing to the academic literature on Turkey’s
energy strategy in two ways. Firstly, through explaining the role of and
interaction between the most important determinants of Turkey’s foreign oil and
natural gas strategy, the paper aims at contributing to further understanding
of the strategy. Secondly, while a number of academic studies have analyzed
Ankara’s energy policy, they have remained mostly policy-based. Thus, by
describing the key determinative elements of Ankara’s external oil and natural
gas strategy in the framework of Realism and Liberalism, the paper also aims to
fill in this important gap in the academic literature. As shown in this
article, both theories are rather helpful in explaining the principal determinants
of Turkey’s foreign oil and natural gas strategy. The paper argues that the
most crucial determinative elements of the strategy, in terms of the order of
their importance, are the concerns of the country over its energy security, its
goal of becoming an energy hub, several regional developments, the economic and
business partnerships between Turkey and its energy allies, and foreign
ambitions of Turkish energy firms.
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