Sezer Özcan
Securitization of Energy in the European Union
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Mathias Albert
This study will deal with the energy securitization process of the European Union. The EU will be analysed under three main institutions which are the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament. The role of them in the development of the EU energy policy by creating a common discourse and drawing the framework of the decisions will be analyzed in detail. Furthermore, there is still no single voice in the EU regarding the energy issue due to the national interests of the member states. The external actors especially Russia have been using this situation as a political tool against them. Another aim of this study is to give response to the question of whether the EU can speak with a single voice in the energy issue or the member states follow their national interests. Energy policies of the member states will be analysed to assess whether it is the supranational leadership of the main European institutions or the national interests of the member states that prevail in the securitization of energy. At the same time, energy policies of the EU will be studied respectively in terms of oil and gas. The scope of this thesis is limited with oil and gas as main concern; this is not to deny the importance of other main sources of energy like nuclear energy, renewable energy and solid fuels. The reason not to choose the other sources is that they are not precisely securitized and also Europe is becoming increasingly dependent on the resources of oil and gas. At this point, securitizing of these energy sources have become a part of high politics and started to be perceived in terms of existential threats. Growing dependence on these resources has brought the idea of securitizing energy, thus, oil and gas will be primary sources to analyze securitization of energy at the EU level. Moreover, energy security has been an important element of calculation of state actors in the 20th century. In the last decades, crisis like the Oil Embargo of 1973 and the recent Russian-Ukrainian Gas Dispute in 2006 showed how this element acquires relevance in world politics. In this respect, the issue of energy (particularly oil and gas) has become the top priority subject in the EU, thus, European member states have urgently considered to build a Common Energy Policy (CEP) at the EU level. Within the page limitation of the study, the time frame is determined starting from the Arab Oil Crisis in 1973 and ends with the Russian-Ukrainian Gas Dispute in 2006 in order to check whether the energy issue is taken out of the realm of politics and started to be considered in the realm of security. The main reason of determining these crucial dates is to emphasize the level of energy securitization efforts in the EU. Eventually, multidimensional security approach of the Copenhagen School, 'securitization theory' in detail, will be analyzed for understanding the EU energy security discourse.
EDUCATION
- 2010 / on process - Doctoral Degree at the Sociology Department of Bielefeld University. The project is supervised by Prof. Dr. Mathias Albert, titled as "the Securitization of Energy in the European Union".
- 2007/2010 - MA Degree at the Catholic University of Portugal - Lisbon/Portugal, Department of International Relations, Security and Defense. The dissertation is titled as "The Concept of Europeanization and European Integration of Turkey".
- 2002/2007 - Bachelor Degree (5th year) at the Department of International Relations at Uludag University/Turkey.
- 2006/2007 - ERASMUS Exchange Programme at the Politic Institute of ISCAP- Porto/Portugal.
- 2004/2005 - Advanced English Course at the Lewis School of English in Southampton/the UK.
- 2010/December-2011/May - Research Assistantship under the directive of Prof. Dr. Mathias Albert.
- 2011- February 7-9 - Third Annual Seminar, "From Time To Space? Current Conceptual Challenges in History and Sociology", organized by the BGHS Bielefeld University.
- 2010/30 August - Speaker at the academic workshop at the University of Bielefeld titled "Turkey-EU relations: an Uncertain Future?" that was organised with the particular contributions of Changing Turkey in a Changing World and Netzwerk Tuerkei.
- 23rd-30th May 2010 - Conference of "International Symposium in Cultural Diplomacy" held in ICD House in Berlin.
- 2010/On Process - Affiliated Researcher in the Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Security (IPRIS), Website: http://www.ipris.org.
- 2010/On Process - Member at Netzwer-Tuerkei. Website: http://netzwerk-tuerkei.org/mitglieder/sezer-ozcan/
- 2009 November/On Process - Researcher in the Oriente Institute of the Political Department of Lisbon Technic University/Research Center. Instituto de Oriente, Website: www.ioriente.iscsp.utl.pt
- 25th - 27th June 2009 - International Meeting in Political Sciences and Summer School - "XVII NATO at 60 The Future of The Free World" held in Estoril Hotel-Lisbon.
- 26th - 28th June 2008 - International Meeting in Political Sciences and Summer School "Human Rights Today: 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" held in Estoril Hotel-Lisbon.
- 14th - 19th September 2008 - EUROPAEUM Summer School 2008 in Bonn/Germany, "Sacred Buildings in European Cities" held in several cities in Germany.
- January 2008 - Brussels Programme, "Visiting NATO Headquartors and European Commision-Parliament" held in Brussels.
- June 2006 - Participation to a course in Istanbul Political Academy regarding Turkish foreign policies.
- 2011/On Process - "Turkey: As an Energy Gateway Country for Europe".
- 2010 - "Europeanization process of Turkey into the EU" by Sezer Ozcan, published in the website of the Organization "Changing Turkey in a Changing World", Website: http://changingturkey.com/2010/09/17/the-europeanization-of-turkey-a-historical-perspective-by-m-sezer-ozcan/
- 2010 - "Europeanization process of Turkey into the EU" by Sezer Ozcan, published in the Journal of Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Security (IPRIS), Website: http://www.ipris.org.
- Turkish (Native), English (Fluent), Portuguese (Advanced), German (Pre-Intermediate), Spanish (Basic).
