The Black Sea Region in an Enlarged Europe: Changing Patterns, Changing Politics

With the enlargements of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and European Union, European security dynamics are currently undergoing a significant transformation, from Euro-centric policies to an extended approach toward neighboring regions and new partners. NATO is now bordered by three seas, with its security umbrella ranging from the Mediterranean to the Baltic and the Black Seas. Within this triangle, Europe—through both NATO and the EU—has assumed a global security role and has defined new policies to cope with the new security challenges in North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

However, there is ironically a missing link in this list of conflicted areas: the Black Sea itself. With the reunification of Europe and post-11 September perceptions about new threats, significant changes and challenges to the traditional security paradigm around the Black Sea have occurred. These might have a long-term impact on how Europe shapes its new security policies. In light of the enlargement of the European integrative processes and the end of the Cold War, Charles King has defined the Black Sea, Caucasus, and Eastern Europe as being the "New Near East."¹

Undeniably, post-Cold War developments have raised conceptual problems about how to define a region and even if regional policies are still an issue on the globalized and globalizing security agenda. The regionality of a certain geographic sector could be defined in terms of its common history, shared strategic assets, common concerns and challenges, and whether a sense of community animates regional players.² Others have defined a region as being "a group of states whose primary security concerns link together sufficiently closely that their national securities cannot realistically be considered apart from one another."³ Yet others have defined regions as a function of rising or declining hegemonies or as a localism-oriented gathering against the pressures of globalization.⁴

Some of these references could be applied to the Black Sea region—a risk-oriented approach, the common strategic relevance of the area, or the historical interdependencies and power-related evolutions of this area. Others might be questionable, since the Black Sea's diversity of cultures, religions, and political allegiances could be seen as obstacles to the emergence of a distinct security community or of a single, politically shared identity. Different division lines have crossed the sea throughout its history, but regional actors have also striven to create bridges and build relations that aimed at connecting Europe with Asia. Whether a bridge or a buffer zone, the Black Sea has remained during its history a sensitive spot on the larger Eurasian map, an area in which the Great Powers employed their geostrategic concepts about the control of the seas. Unlike the Mediterranean area, where in modern times developments have taken place mostly along north-south lines (or southeast, during the rise of the Ottoman Empire) and there has often been division, the Black Sea area experienced both north-south and east-west exchanges, which led to the mingling of cultures and traditions from the ancient Greeks, Persians, and Romans to Asian nomad tribes and Byzantine, Islamic, and Russian civilizations.

An analysis of the relevance of the Black Sea for European security starts with an assessment of opportunities and enduring strategic issues in the region, as contrasted with current challenges and risks. We need also evaluate the policies of regional and outside players and assess potential future strategies in or for the Black Sea.

Strategic Assets and Opportunities: Enduring Historical Trends and New Developments

Against this background of opportunities, challenges, and policies, geographical coordinates play an essential role in the examination of Black Sea security issues. The region includes the coastal waters of Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, the Russian Federation, Turkey, and Ukraine, and it is an area with densely populated shores, significant natural resources, and a tiny strait connecting to the Mediterranean. Neal...