Black Sea Politics

The Black Sea region is a dynamic and complex area in which many national and international actors have key interests, including Russia and the US. The European Union stretches to the sea’s western coast where it meets former Soviet territory as well as EU candidate Turkey. Regional tensions include those over NATO enlargement, a US anti-ballistic missile system, access to the Black Sea, democratization, spheres of interest and the conflict zones of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria. In addition, the region’s close proximity to the Caspian basin offers the prospect of alternative energy resources and routes to western states. The Politics of the Black Sea Region: EU Neighbourhood, Conflict Zone or Future Security Community? explores and examines the many diverse political, security and economic interests that affect the region and the possible outcomes for it. By reviewing the wider history and examining the political systems and policies of the Black Sea nations and organizations as well as analyzing current tensions and future trends, it provides an invaluable, comprehensive and unique political guide to this fascinating area.

Today, we know what the Black Sea is not from a strategic perspective, but we do not know what it is. This strategic indecision is the explanation for all the conflicts, frozen or not, explicit or tacit, and all the political and geopolitical tensions that are now taking place in this space and that are becoming endemic. The story of the Black Sea continues… This text is the first encyclopaedia explicitly dedicated to the geopolitics of the Black Sea, written for Western audiences, an academic research which appeals to the wider academic community, PhD students, professors, and researchers, and to any reader interested in geopolitics, history, international relations, economy, sociology, history, and geography.

This book presents the opinions of experts and researchers from the Black Sea states with respect to history, security, politics, strategy, energy, and economy in the region, and explains various dimensions of the present international relations and problem areas from both theoretical and conceptual perspectives. Offering the reader a comprehensive approach that covers a wide range of affairs, it is hoped that this book will fill an important gap in international relations studies. While the added word “Blue” in the title indicates our shared aspirations for a clean and peaceful future, overall this book is intended to provide valuable academic assessments and share them with the wider world community, thus disseminating findings about the regional and global policies being pursued in the Black Sea region today.

In this publication possible ways to promote security cooperation in the Wider Black Sea Area are being addressed. The area holds major importance for Euro-Atlantic security. Strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, the region, after the dual NATO-EU enlargement in 2004-2007, became part of the periphery of the common Euro-Atlantic security system, with critical value for European energy security and the war on terrorism. The region faces a variety of security challenges, including regional conflicts, ethnic strife, terrorism, and powerful organized crime, while many of the countries have weak institutions, turbulent political systems, unstable economies and lack of democracy. In addition, the traffic of drugs to the West, the steady stream of militancy from the Middle East, and the energy lines from the oil and gas-rich regions of the East to an energy-hungry Europe gradually define the Wider Black Sea Area as a region urgently requiring political attention and investment in its security. This publication is intended to provide fresh ideas on the possible areas of security cooperation, even as the authors agreed that comprehensive, far-reaching policies are hard to attain in the near future.

The Black Sea region is a dynamic and complex area in which many national and international actors have key interests, including Russia and the US. The European Union stretches to the sea’s western coast where it meets former Soviet territory as well as EU candidate Turkey. Regional tensions include those over NATO enlargement, a US anti-ballistic missile system, access to the Black Sea, democratization, spheres of interest and the conflict zones of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria. In addition, the region’s close proximity to the Caspian basin offers the prospect of alternative energy resources and routes to western states. The Politics of the Black Sea Region: EU Neighbourhood, Conflict Zone or Future Security Community? explores and examines the many diverse political, security and economic interests that affect the region and the possible outcomes for it. By reviewing the wider history and examining the political systems and policies of the Black Sea nations and organizations as well as analyzing current tensions and future trends, it provides an invaluable, comprehensive and unique political guide to this fascinating area.

Directly relates to current Ukraine crisis. Russia's Black Sea fleet is based in Ukrainian port of Sebastapol (Crimea). This work brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines on a region vitally important in current international relations for Europe, Russia and the Near East, offering fresh perspective combining regional 'insiders' and 'outsider' international experts. If ideas of 'civil society' democratisation are Western in nature then how should one examine these trends in a non-Western society? This book presents a variety of experiences of civil society, looking at representation, participation and power relations in countries such as the Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Caucasus area. It is a rare combination of 'insider' perspectives of regional experts and the 'outsider' views of international experts.

Directly relates to current Ukraine crisis. Russia's Black Sea fleet is based in Ukrainian port of Sebastapol (Crimea). This work brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines on a region vitally important in current international relations for Europe, Russia and the Near East, offering fresh perspective combining regional 'insiders' and 'outsider' international experts. If ideas of 'civil society' democratisation are Western in nature then how should one examine these trends in a non-Western society? This book presents a variety of experiences of civil society, looking at representation, participation and power relations in countries such as the Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Caucasus area. It is a rare combination of 'insider' perspectives of regional experts and the 'outsider' views of international experts.

"Directly relates to current Ukraine crisis. Russia's Black Sea fleet is based in Ukrainian port of Sebastapol (Crimea). This work brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines on a region vitally important in current international relations for Europe, Russia and the Near East, offering fresh perspective combining regional 'insiders' and 'outsider' international experts. If ideas of 'civil society' democratisation are Western in nature then how should one examine these trends in a non-Western society? This book presents a variety of experiences of civil society, looking at representation, participation and power relations in countries such as the Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Caucasus area. It is a rare combination of 'insider' perspectives of regional experts and the 'outsider' views of international experts."--Bloomsbury Publishing.