Feasibility of Regional Connectivity Projects in Energy and Transportation: The Collision of Microfoundations and Geopolitical Considerations

Year 2024, Volume: 29 Issue: 2, 74 - 100, 07.01.2025

Kenan Aslanlı

Abstract

The article aims to examine two basic arguments: (a) the feasibility of regional connectivity projects and initiatives in energy and transportation areas depends not only on geopolitical considerations and power competition but also on microfoundational parameters such as technicalities, human behavior, random decisions, networks, and institutional, informational, socioeconomic, and financial dimensions (b) the microfoundations of the energy and transportation connectivity projects and initiatives enable actual power diffusion from states to non-state actors such as private companies that have accumulated technical capacity and resources. The article investigates the feasibility of tangible connectivity projects in transportation and energy such as the Middle Corridor, the International North-South Transport Corridor, the Zengezur Corridor, the Northern Sea Route, the Nabucco Gas Pipeline, and the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline from the perspective of the collision between microfoundations and geopolitical considerations. Even though connectivity projects and initiatives in energy and transportation have different prerequisites and components for feasibility, both incorporate exogenous geopolitical and endogenous microfoundational parameters. The article argues that social scientists researching connectivity in energy and transportation sectors as an epistemic community commonly concentrate on the geopolitical perspective, frequently overlooking the microfoundations of regional projects and initiatives.

Keywords

Connectivity, microfoundations, energy, oil-gas, transportation, geopolitics

References

• References are indicated in the article.