Authors

Discussion

For more than ten years, the structures and processes of the global world order have been changing dramatically and fundamentally. Rapidly unfolding globalisation and growing nationalism in most countries, geopolitical turbulence, and an apparent power transformation in the global economy all threaten to dismantle the liberal world order in favour of nondemocratic states. A battle between different strategic cultures can be observed especially in the Black Sea region.

Since the Russian-Georgian war in 2008, regional security around the Black Sea has transformed in several ways. Russia’s aggressive military comeback and the considerable influence of disinformation have made the region highly vulnerable, and the absence of comprehensive domestic or regional peace-building policies provides a breeding ground for further security risks. We see that Moscow continuously expands its military and political posture matching it closely with cultural and historical narratives. Russia’s ambition of refashioning the regional security has also had major implications for Turkey’s security approach. With ancient historical, cultural and economic ties among the region’s littoral states, Turkey has begun to pursue an active policy of creating its own regional identity.

Since the End of the Cold War, the European Union has consistently fought with Washington against a recurrence of spheres of influence in the Black Sea region by breaking Russia’s dominance and supporting the political and economic transformations in post-Soviet countries. Yet the initial enthusiasm over the region began to break down in the early 2000s. The EU created some new instruments for stronger cooperation with the region, but their success has been clearly limited. The EU got off course strategically by using a mixed approach that involved economic diplomacy, and an appeal to normative principles. However, the political debate in Brussels has mostly centred on the ‘strategic surprise’ represented by the Russian aggressive policy in the neighbourhood.

Combining theoretical elements of Neo-realism and Constructivism in its theoretical approach, the paper analyses security identity models of Russia, Turkey and the EU in the Black Sea region in order to identify core narratives. As cultural and historical aspects play a crucial role in the construction of security identity, the analysis puts special emphasis on this dimension. The paper illustrates the risks as well as opportunities for the EU resulting from these identity models and develops recommendations to overcome (geopolitical) challenges.