Mert Bilgin’s research while affiliated with Bahçeşehir University and other places

This paper adopts a futuristic methodology and analyzes the role of natural gas in European energy security in order to transform economic and policy uncertainties into meaningful scenarios. It implements “trend analysis” to forecast the volume of gas needed until 2020 by elaborating the estimates of the EU Commission and “scenario building” to come up with alternative futures forging different regional implications. The economic analysis stems from four scenarios as introduced by the EU Commission: (1) baseline scenario with average oil price of 61$/bbl; (2) baseline scenario with average oil price of 100$/bbl; (3) New Energy Policy scenario with average oil price of 61$/bbl; (4) New Energy Policy scenario with average oil price of 100$/bbl. The policy analysis is derived from the options, restraints, priorities and strategies of the concerned actors which include the EU Commission, selected EU members, suppliers and transit countries. The analysis on actors results in four policy scenarios: (1) Russia first; (2) Russia everywhere; (3) security first; (4) each for itself. The matrix, which excludes the possibility of unprecedented developments such as a drastic increase in European shale gas production or continuing global recession, clusters 16 contingencies. The paper, within this context, gives an idea on how alternative policy options of European energy security may lead to different futures based on oil prices, environmental commitments and strategic initiatives of the concerned actors.

This paper focuses on the shift in Turkey's energy policy and analyzes the development of energy mix, investments plans and pipelines. The paper indicates how energy security, which was originally conceived as an input of development, became a strategic tool for Turkey's regional and foreign relations. It elaborates Turkey's actual energy strategy, which has recently been introduced by the state authorities. The article addresses investment opportunities and restraints with a particular focus on pipeline politics. It ends by identifying Turkey's assumptions about the future. The conclusion points out the consistencies and contradictions between Turkey's energy security and its aspiration to benefit from pipeline politics.

This paper addresses perception (P), environment (E), action (A), relationship (R), and locality (L) as the social indicators of sustainable development (SD), the capital letters of which label the PEARL model. The paper refers to PEARL with regard to three aspects to elaborate the promises and limits of the model. Theoretically; it discusses comprehensiveness of the model. Pedagogically; it focuses on how the PEARL might facilitate learning, teaching and recalling fundaments of SD. Practically; it searches whether the model is appropriate for indexing and assessment. The PEARL brings out the significance of perceptions for SD and promises pedagogical contribution. The model, within this sense, appears as a qualitative understanding of SD which proposes a schematic framework to facilitate teaching and learning of its content. The analysis also points to likelihood of a quantitative PEARL index that is appropriate for assessment and measurement for individuals, institutions and regions.

The main stream economic paradigm generates some cultural conflicts, un-sustainability of Earth resources and conceptual distortions. This paper introduces the theory of communicative language (TCL) to address negative effects of economic value making on political and social relations. It adopts a conceptual perspective and elaborates economic, political and social relations with regard to means of communication. Having put the theoretical foundation, the paper builds alternative futures in which “communicative language” identifies co-existence of multiple civilizations stemming from sustainability; where as extensive use of “dominative language” in economic and political actions, leads to social decay, results in un-sustainability, and generates conflicts between cultures and civilizations.

This article identifies the differences between being an energy corridor, hub or center, in the case of Turkey, with a particular focus on its foreign and domestic energy features. It elaborates the shift in Turkey's energy discourse from 1991 to nowadays in order to define the background which makes Turkey consider energy as a significant tool in foreign affairs and regional relations. The paper points to important consistencies and inconsistencies between Turkey's energy discourse, regional situation, foreign policy initiatives and domestic energy structure. Turkey's fuzzy energy discourse, as it was at the very beginning of this period, has gained a strategic vision during the last couple of years. Turkey implements energy as a strategic foreign policy tool, yet with a retroactive characteristic mainly arising from past discrepancies. This strategy, which is aimed at creating an energy transit corridor, can become proactive, making Turkey a hub or a center, and will be highly related to contractual terms of past and forthcoming energy agreements, changes in the energy mix and the successful use of massive investment.

This paper addresses issues of natural gas which raise questions about European energy security. It first focuses on the rising gas demand of the EU27 and elaborates alleged risks of dependence on Russia such as Gazprom's disagreement with Ukraine, which became an international gas crisis in January 2006 and also more recently in January 2009. Incentives and barriers of Europe's further cooperation with selected Caspian (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan) and Middle Eastern (Iran, Iraq and Egypt) countries are discussed. Supplies from Caspian are analyzed with a particular focus on Russia's role and the vested interests in the region. Supplies from the Middle East are elaborated with regard to Iran's huge and Iraq's emerging potentials in terms of natural gas reserves and foreign direct investments in the energy sector. The geopolitical analysis leads to a conclusion that the best strategy, and what seems more likely, for the EU is to include at least two countries from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Iraq within its natural gas supply system.

This article formulates institutional virtues according to sustainable development (SD) criteria to come up with a paradigmatic set of corporate principles. It aims to answer how a corporation might obtain competitive advantage by combining “going ethical” with “going green.” On the one hand, it brings out facts that indicate a forthcoming trend inclined to force relevant actors to comply with SD requirements. On the other hand, it suggests that SD may be implemented as a strategy to gain competitive advantage by the help of the PEARL model through its five fundaments: (1) perception friendliness, (2) environment friendliness, (3) action, (4) relationship, and (5) locality. This article finally shows that although a number of companies (e.g., Bosch, BP, and GE) implement SD as a tool of differentiation, they lack a holistic model that is fully responsive to current dynamics. The PEARL may be implemented as a proactive positioning to gain competitive advantage because transformation of this model into corporate strategy does not only respond to “stakeholder” claims, but also meets the changing characteristic of “societal demands.”