Research & Analysis
Energy Straits combines historical scholarship with contemporary geopolitical analysis to examine how energy infrastructure, geography, and strategic relationships shape international politics. The work spans academic research, policy analysis, and private-client advisory, with particular emphasis on Türkiye, the Middle East, and the changing international energy order.
Energy Infrastructure and Strategic Transit
Pipelines, shipping routes, and strategic chokepoints shape political relationships, create dependencies, and influence the exercise of power. Research in this area explores the historical development of energy transportation networks and their contemporary strategic significance, from the construction of Middle Eastern oil pipelines to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran War Scenarios: Implications for Energy Flows Through Hormuz
Energy Straits, March 2026
An early assessment of how the Iran war could disrupt energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz, examining possible scenarios and their implications for global markets.
A Crude Marriage: Iraq, Turkey, and the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline
Middle Eastern Studies, 2017
Examines the political negotiations, economic factors, and strategic calculations behind the construction of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline and its role in Iraqi-Turkish relations.
Shifting Energy-Security Priorities and the Iran-Turkey Pipeline Scheme, 1967–1971
Diplomatic History, 2021
Explores the competing national and commercial interests behind a proposed Iranian oil pipeline through Turkey and the changing energy-security priorities of regional and international actors.
Current book project: Cracked Pipes
Cracked Pipes examines how the shift from pipelines to tankers transformed Middle Eastern oil transportation and reshaped international power. It traces the changing strategic responsibilities of Britain and the United States, exploring how control over oil flows became central to American influence in the Middle East.
Türkiye and the Geopolitics of Energy
Türkiye's position between major energy producers and European markets has made energy central to its foreign relations. Analysis focuses on the country's evolving relationships with Russia, Iraq, and its Eastern Mediterranean neighbors, particularly the strategic implications of energy dependence, diversification, and competing transit routes.
Contemporary Turkish Energy Geopolitics
Horizon Engage — Senior Advisor, Türkiye
Ongoing analysis of Türkiye's energy policies, infrastructure investments, and strategic relationships with major suppliers and regional partners. Coverage includes natural gas, oil transit, electricity, and energy security.
Influence Before Oil: How Iraq Bargains with a Pipeline that May Never Be Built
BADIL — Non-Resident Fellow, 2026
Examines how proposed Iraqi oil export routes are reshaping negotiations among Baghdad, Ankara, Erbil, and Washington, even before new infrastructure is constructed.
Turkey Is Building It. Will Europe Come?
Energy Straits, June 2026
Examines Türkiye's investments in energy infrastructure and the political and commercial uncertainties surrounding its ambitions to become a regional energy hub.
Turbulence in the Eastern Mediterranean: Geopolitical, Security and Energy Dynamics
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), 2024
Research contribution to a strategic dossier examining regional security, energy development, and geopolitical competition in the Eastern Mediterranean. Published for a private client.
Energy, Power, and the International Order
Changes in energy production, transportation, and consumption have repeatedly reshaped international power. Research in this area examines these relationships from the transition from coal to oil to contemporary challenges involving supply disruptions, sanctions, and the global energy transition.
Energy Straits, October 2026
Explores how crude inventories, Russian oil supplies, and electrification have helped China withstand the prolonged Hormuz crisis, and whether these advantages can sustain its resilience over time.
A Farewell to King Coal: Global Power and the Transition to Oil, 1898–1917
The Historical Journal, 2019
Examines how the transition from coal to oil influenced the strategic priorities of the great powers and the changing international balance of power.
The Unpromising Geopolitics of a 'Green' Economy
Royal United Services Institute, 2021
Considers the geopolitical challenges associated with the energy transition and the persistence of strategic competition in a changing global energy system.