Details

The conference aims to discuss and analyze recent developments in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East with a particular focus on the impact of geopolitics and energy on the regional architecture. The political dynamics in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East have become extremely fluid with the Syrian crisis entering a new phase and with lifting of international sanctions against Iran. Ethnic and sectarian divides pose new challenges and seem to be prompting new strategic alignments in the region. Energy has assumed a new importance in this dynamic with significant discoveries of natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean. The conference will also assess how regional geopolitical and energy trends may lead to greater multilateral cooperation to solve long standing conflicts in the Eastern Mediterranean. In so doing, the conference seeks to promote a multi-layered understanding of future prospects in the Greater Middle East.

The conference will bring together experts from Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Cyprus, the European Union and Russia to comprehensively assess the future of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. With an eye to the potential state of the region in the 2020s, the closed roundtable discussion is intended to shed light on debates as to whether the current trend in the region tends towards greater anarchy or growing cooperation.