scholarly journals Current state and perspectives of the American-Bulgarian relationship

2016 ◽  
pp. 71-84
Author(s):  
Bogdan Grushetskyi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Development ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Usa

The main stages of the relations between the USA and Bulgaria after the fall of the Communist regimes in the Central-Eastern Europe in1989 are clarified. They were the most active in 1990-1992, 2001-2003, 2005-2008 and their intensity depends mostly on the interest of the USA in the promoting their national interests with the help of Bulgaria. It is revealed, that the energetics and defense are the most important issues in the bilateral interaction. Geopolitical location of Bulgaria allows to consider it as a potentially significant element in the hydrocarbons supply in Europe from the Caspian region, Middle East and Russia. USA regard Bulgaria as a main partner in the South-Eastern Europe because of its strong allied position during the conflicts in the Balkans and Middle East and also its stable political development and rapid temps of democratization. Transformation of the American-Bulgarian cooperation during the second B. Borisov cabinet in power (since the November 2014) are analyzed. The key factor of it is the aggressive politics of Russia in the Black Sea Region. This politics obliged US diplomacy to promote the questions of the Bulgaria’s involving in the Southern Gas Corridor project more consistently and its defensive capacity strengthening. In this period position of Bulgaria in the main regional issues mostly corresponds with the American priorities. It concerns such directions as the international sanctions against Russia because of its aggression in Ukraine, the energy and arms diversification, strengthening of the NATO Eastern borders security.

scholarly journals Strategy in the making: Russia-NATO Relations under Strategic Competition

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (27) ◽  
pp. 91-114
Author(s):  
Luis Alexander Montero Moncada ◽  
Maria Paula Velandia García
Keyword(s):  
World Politics ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
European Security ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Strategic Competition ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Potential Risks ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
The Eu

In this article, we examine the elements that are being developed by NATO and Russia in a strategic competition in Europe. Having analysed these elements, each sub-system, as described by the Realist Theory of International Relations, is facing major changes in today’s world politics. From Northern Europe to the Balkans and the Black Sea region, the analysis focuses on areas of tension that could potentially become problematic for the interaction between the two actors. Besides, the Baltic region is explained further due to its continuous activity regarding either hybrid or tradition war tactics. Finally, we draw a parallel between NATO, the EU and the USA as main actors in European Security and how the latter has been changing drastically since Donald Trump took office. We conclude by analysing potential risks, scenarios and conflicts between NATO and Russia in short range projections.

Slave Trades and Diaspora in the Middle East, 700 to 1900 CE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
George La Rue
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Mutual Adaptation ◽  
Trading Networks

In the Middle East, Africa was only one of multiple sources of servile labor. Building on the legacy of earlier civilizations, the region drew on all of its immediate neighbors for slaves. Local kingdoms and empires arose, clashed, expanded, and adapted old and new slaving strategies from internal and external rivals. From the 7th century, the rapid expansion of Islam and the building of Muslim empires are salient features in this history, but many other historical developments played key roles. Ensuing encounters with other civilizations, empires, and trading networks frequently resulted in friction, mutual adaptation, or new cultural, political, or economic synergies. In the Middle East, Islamic practices toward slaves influenced all regional cultures, yet many variants emerged due to local customs; changing economic and political considerations; specific environmental conditions; and the experiences, cultures, and talents of the enslaved. Slaves were captured directly or purchased. In wars and raids, Middle Eastern armies captured enemy combatants and civilians to ransom or enslave. The mix of enslaved and servile persons brought into the region varied in its composition, reflecting the geographical areas of military actions, the development of powerful trading partners, and the extent of trading networks. Foreign merchants imported additional slaves from the Balkans, the Black Sea region, the islands and shores of the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and Africa—including the West African savanna, the Lake Chad region, Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Horn of Africa, particularly via the Swahili coast. These practices brought new servile populations as workers, domestic staff, concubines, soldiers, or bureaucrats to serve in imperial outposts, trading towns, or centers of agricultural, handicraft, or industrial production. The constant demand for servile labor was driven not only by expanding empires and new economic enterprises but also by growing urban populations, the multiple options for manumission under Islamic law, high mortality rates and low rates of reproduction among enslaved populations for social and medical reasons, and the resultant scarcity of second-generation slaves. Broadly speaking, enslaved Africans were more common in the southern tier of the Middle East and demand for them generally increased over time, as northern and internal sources of slaves dwindled. Enslaved persons, including Africans, served in numerous capacities and were dispersed throughout the Middle East and its areas of slave supply.

THE ECONOMIC-MILITARY IMPORTANCE OF THE BLACK SEA – NORTH SEA CORRIDOR FOR ENSURING STABILITY IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-146
Author(s):  
Valentin-Costinel TOTIR ◽  
Roxana ALEXANDRU
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
North Sea ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
The Impact

Abstract: During history, the main channel of communication and cooperation between countries was through commerce and, consequently, through transport. Among all the transport ways, the maritime transport is the one that offers the best cost – benefits ratio. This article is addressed to all the people involved or interested in the economic and military fields and aims to highlight the importance of the Black Sea and North Sea connecting corridor in ensuring peace and stability in Europe in general and in South-Eastern Europe in special. To achieve this goal, we will review the historical conflicts among European countries for waterway control and make a descriptive analysis of the stability situation in the areas affected by them. Furthermore, using the hypothetical-deductive method, we will highlight the manner in which the connection of the Black Sea with the North Sea has influenced economic and military exchanges between riparian states and the impact on stability across European continent. At the end of the article, we will show how economic and military stability in south-eastern Europe is influenced and threatened by geopolitical changes in the wider Black Sea region and how this stability can be maintained and strengthened due to the great possibilities for economic cooperation among the countries of Western and South-Eastern Europe. The novelty of this approach is that it aims to analyze the importance of the Black Sea-North Sea channel in the context of fundamental changes in the politico-military situation in South-East Europe, generated by the expansion of the Russian Federation and the conflict between Turkey and Greece, NATO member countries.

Essays on the Political history of the Countries of Central and south-Eastern Europe. From the Late Twentieth to the Early Twenty-First Centuries

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
History Of ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
Late Twentieth

This collective monograph is a comprehensive study of the causes, evolution and outcomes of complex processes in the contemporary history of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, and aims in particular to identify common and special characteristics in their socio-economic and political development. The authors base their work on documentary evidence; both published and unpublished archival materials reveal the specifics of the development of the political landscapes in these countries. They highlight models combining both European and nationally oriented (and even nationalist) components of the political spheres of particular countries; identify markers which allow the stage of completion (or incompletion) of the establishment of a new political system to be estimated; and present analyses of the processes of internal political struggle, which has often taken on ruthless forms. The analysis of regional and country-specific documentary materials illustrates that the gap in the development of the region with “old Europe” in general has not yet been overcome: in the post-Socialist period, the situation of the region being “ownerless” and “abandoned”, characteristic of the period between the two world wars, is reoccurring. The authors conclude that during the period from the late twentieth to the early twenty-first centuries, the region was quite clearly divided into two parts: Central (the Visegrad Four) and South-Eastern (the Balkans) Europe. The authors explore the prevailing trends in the political development of Hungary and Poland related to the leadership of nationally and religiously oriented parties; in the Czech Republic and Slovakia the pendulum-like change in power of the left and right-wing parties; and in Bulgaria and Romania the domestic political processes permanently in crisis. The authors pay special attention to the contradictory nature of the political evolution of the states that emerged in the space of the former Yugoslavia. For the first time, Greece and Turkey are included in the context of a regional-wide study. The contributors present optimal or resembling transformational models, which can serve as a prototype for shaping the political landscape of other countries in the world. The monograph substantiates the urgency of the new approach needed to study the history and current state of the region and its countries, taking into account the challenges of the time, which require strengthening national and state identity. The research also offered prognostic characteristics of transformational changes in the region, the Visegrad Four, and the Balkans.

Imperial confrontation or regional cooperation?: Bulgarian migration and Ottoman-Russian relations in the Black Sea region, 1768-1830s

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Robarts
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Primary Unit

The Black Sea region from 1768-1830s has traditionally been characterized as a theater of warfare and imperial competition. Indeed, during this period, the Ottoman and Russian empires engaged in four armed conflicts for supremacy in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and on the Black Sea itself. While not discounting geo-strategic and ideological confrontation between the Ottoman and Russian empires, this article - by adopting the Black Sea region as its primary unit of historical and political analysis - will emphasize the considerable amount of exchange that took place between the Ottoman and Russian empires in the Black Sea region in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Building upon a case study of Bulgarian migration between the Ottoman and Russian empires and as part of a broader discussion on Ottoman-Russian Black Sea diplomacy this article will detail joint Ottoman-Russian initiatives to control their mutual Black Sea borderland.

scholarly journals Regional Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe and its Implications for the EU

European View ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktória Jančošekovà
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Visegrád Countries ◽  
The Eu

Regional cooperation is mutually beneficial collaboration between neighbouring countries. This holds regardless of whether it is a matter of cooperation between the Benelux countries, the Nordic–Baltic states, France and Germany, or the Visegrad countries. The last-mentioned countries' dismissive attitude to tackling the migration crisis has thrust them into the limelight. The most recent cooperative forums in the Central Eastern Europe region, such as the Slavkov Triangle and the Three Seas Initiative, evidence a new dynamic and a regrouping of forces on the basis of national interests and EU themes. Western and Eastern Europe have different approaches to the most pressing challenges, such as migration. These differences have caused deep divisions between their respective leaders. However, the disagreements on the migration issue and the future of the EU notwithstanding, regional cooperation among the Central and Eastern European countries remains valuable in areas that include the integration process, security and defence.

Mit zweierlei Maß. Der Adriaraum als Laboratorium spätmittelalterlicher Praktiken des Slaving / Two Degrees of Bondage: The Venetian Adriatic Sea as a Laboratory for European Practices and Discourses of Slavery

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliane Schiel
Keyword(s):  
Adriatic Sea ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Commercial Policy ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
The Balkans

AbstractIt is usually held that by the turn of the millennium Latin Christians stopped enslaving their fellow-believers from within Europe. Scholars have therefore tended to define the late medieval type of domestic slaves in Italian and Iberian households, most of whom had been traded from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea region to Europe, by their cultural and religious difference. Yet, the numerous Christians from the Balkans who came across the Adriatic Sea to the West (and especially to Venice) clearly complicate the picture. They were mostly under twelve years of age and could be purchased at a very low price. The paper examines the commercial policy of the Venetian Senate in respect of the Adriatic human trafficking and sounds the strategies Venetian merchants used in order to pursue their interests, within and outside the legal framework set by the state authorities East and West of the Adriatic Sea.

scholarly journals EVOLUTION FROM THE CONCEPT “ZERO PROBLEMS WITH NEIGHBORS” TO THE PRACTICE “ZERO NEIGHBORS WITHOUT PROBLEMS”: THE ROLE OF NEO-OTTOMANISM

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-56
Author(s):  
Nataliya Khoma ◽  
Yevhenija Voznyuk
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Unsuccessful Attempt ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Turkish Government ◽  
Policy Direction ◽  
The Arab Spring

The peculiarities of Turkey’s foreign policy in the Middle East in 2002-2020 are studied. Turkey’s intentions to establish itself as an influential Eurasian state, which claims leadership in the Middle East, as well as in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia, were noted. The authors indicate the concept and foreign policy doctrine of “Zero Problems with Neighbors” as the ideological basis for Turkey’s transition from a peripheral to a central role in international politics. It is emphasized that the doctrine of “Zero problems with neighbors” has become a revision of traditional Kemalist values in Turkey’s foreign policy. The authors of the article evaluate the practical implementation of the doctrine as an unsuccessful attempt to become a regional leader in the Middle East. It was emphasized that at the beginning of the implementation of the concept of “Zero problems with neighbors” the only goal of the Turkish government was really to establish good neighborly relations, but after the beginning of the “Arab Spring” foreign policy strategy was revised. It was noted that in the last decade the Turkish government has reoriented to a more pragmatic foreign policy direction; it is determined by the main purpose of protecting its national interests; the result was partial Turkey isolation. The article expresses author’s vision that Turkey in its foreign policy has obviously moved from the concept of “Zero problems with neighbors” to the practice of “zero friends”. It is proved that: 1) Turkey’s relations with the Middle East (except Qatar) are quite tense; 2) although there is a partnership with many countries in the Middle East, it is often based on pragmatic mutual interest of countries, and cooperation often does not go beyond trade and economic relations.

scholarly journals The American-Turkish Political Relations 1991-2001 A.D.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 2451-2458
Author(s):  
Ahmed Mahmood Alaw Al-Samarrae , Et. al.
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
East Region ◽  
Middle East Region

The U.S. Turkish relations are one of the issues of interest to the researcher in the field of politics as it is a relationship between two important and active parties in the international arena, especially the Middle East region. The United States had a great interest in Turkey's siding with the West. Turkey also found its interest in that, so we found it a member of the NATO. In contrast to the expected after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkey's importance in the strategic perception of the United States did not end, especially since Turkey's geographical proximity seemed to be more strained and changing, not to mention the Western model adopted by Turkey, which the United States wants to be an example in the region. The American- Turkish relations for the period (1991-2001) were influenced by radical and fundamental changes. These variables are either internal or international. The internal factors influencing this relationship lie in the Turkish political parties which play a major role in the political process. The other factor is the Kurdish issue, which Turkey is dealing with very cautiously, while the United States has used it as a pressure card on the Turkish governments. It has not pursued a consistent policy on the issue and has always appeared against human  rights violations. The other external factors, including the Cyprus issue, are a source of concern for the alliance strategy between the two countries from the 1960s until the present, and there is the matter of dealing with terrorism especially after the events of 11 September 2001. The other factor is the question of the EU accession which is the Turkish dream and the source of interest for its foreign policy. Which the United States is trying to show that it is the only one who able to persuade the Europeans to accept the membership of Turkey. Turkut Ouzel's government has sought to play a pivotal role at the regional and global levels and in the realization of Turkish interests in the Central Asian republics, the Black Sea basin, the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East region, the Arab neighbors, Israel, Iran and the Balkans, beside achieving the economic development and self-sufficiency; efforts are incessant to fulfill those ambitions. Turkey has acted to change the unilateral approach towards the United States and the NATO to another one that includes multilateral policies related to the normalization of relations with the African and Asian worlds as well as neighboring countries.

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