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 t
he sea’s western coast where it meets former Soviet
territory as well as EU candidate Turkey. Regional tensions include
those over NATO
enlargement
, access to the Black Sea, democratization, spheres of interest and the
conflict zones of Abkhazia, South Oss
etia,
Chechnya,
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 Black Sea
Region is one of the main factors in the make
-
up of security and stability in Europe
and Asia. In addition to the numerous other issues in the region, ethnic conflicts,
ongoing state building processes, the presence of vast natural resources, and strategic
transport and energy corridors mean that the
region is an extremely important and
sensitive area.
T
he Black Sea region has always played a specific role in the foreign policy of
Ukraine
.
Security in the Wider Black Sea region is one of the core elements of
European security, and Ukraine, as one of t
he major actors in this region, had a
potential to unite efforts of different states and international organizations to enhance
cooperation in this region.
The Ukraine crisis appears to be a potential turning point in
Euro
-
Atlanti
c security that could be c
ategorized as an active conflict though between
Russia and Ukraine.
Having come as a surprise to many, some senior Western
officials and politicians have talked of a changed European security landscape, and
that the crisis both creates new security realiti
es for the twenty first century and
demands a significant response from NATO. At the same time, however, the crisis is
the crystallisation of a number of wider and longer
-
term problems that have been
increasingly visible for some time, most notably the int
ensifying sense of strategic
dissonance between Russia and the West.
That poses questions
. Is regional integration ineffective in dealing with the
conflicts of identity or separatism? Or is ther
e something special about
the conflicts
themselves or the envi
ronment they are developing in?
How can these conflicts affect
the economic, external or defence policy of the countries involved in this battle of
interests in the area?
Concerning NATO a
nd the EU the question is
: will joining both
or either of these orga
nizations helps solve the “frozen
” or active conflicts
?
These are
some of the research questions that I am going to tackle during this paper
Collections
Show Collections