In today’s multipolar world, recognition of disputed territories is increasingly driven by geopolitical power plays rather than established legal norms like territorial integrity and self-determination. Major powers are using recognition as a tool to legitimise conquest and occupation, exposing a widening gap between how recognition should work in principle and how it actually plays out in practice.

This article examines current energy-related disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean. It does so by situating them in the context of the Middle East’s broader geopolitical landscape and by showing how global powers’ interests and involvement have become contingent on the international and regional political environments. The latter augmented the intensity of the contestation and helped move identifiable and tangible factors, such as Exclusive Economic Zones, into the imaginative realms of geopolitics.