scholarly journals The Black Sea Region in the Contest of Geopolitical Projects of the Great Powers, 1991-2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 498-516
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Anatolievich Irkhin ◽  
Olga Aleksandrovna Moskalenko
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
Current Period ◽  
The Cold War

The Black Sea region (BSR) is becoming a geopolitical space of clash - a frontline zone for the formation of a new system of international relations. After the Cold War, the region from the peripheral became one of the centers of competition between regional and global powers. It has mostly geopolitical rather than simple geographical character, significantly expanding its borders in at least four variations: the BS as the space of seven coastal states, the BS as the Baltic-Black Sea region, the BS as the Black Sea-Caspian Sea region, and the BS as the nerve center of the Greater Mediterranean. The article analyzes the geopolitical projects of great powers in relation to the Black Sea region in 1991-2019. The aim is to study the evolution and dynamics of these geopolitical projects by comparing the conceptual and doctrinal levels, as well as the level of practical policy of the key actors in relation to the Black Sea region. The scientific novelty lies in the systematic analysis of the geopolitical projects of great powers in the BSR after the Cold War, which becomes one of the critically important regions in the current period of world history. The authors conclude that the United States, the EU and Turkey follow an offensive strategy in the BSR, while Russias strategy is aimed at maintaining the status quo. After 2014, the USA and its allies have embarked on a third attempt to implement the Euro-Atlantic Black Sea project and the Greater Black Sea project, which involve the displacement of the Russian Federation from the Black Sea region. The geopolitical significance of the BSR is determined by its strategic location at the intersection of the interests of key actors. Their competition in the BSR is carried out both at the regional (Russia - Turkey - EU) and global (USA - Russia, Turkey, Iran; EU - Russia, Turkey, USA; China - USA, EU, Russia) levels, determining the content of conceptual approaches to the political structure of the region and specific integration (and infrastructure) projects. The complexity of the current geopolitical situation in the region is determined by a large number of competing powers and changing contours of the international system. The main axis of intra-regional competition in the BSR is focused on achieving a balance of power between Russia and Turkey.

Geographical imagination and sociality of sailors of the Black Sea merchant fleet during the Cold War

Focaal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (70) ◽  
pp. 12-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Humphrey
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
Geographical Imagination ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
High Seas

The article discusses Soviet sailors' experiences away from home and seaborne social relations—the particular sociality brought to the Black Sea region by ships and sailors. The officers and sailors employed by the Black Sea Fleet had much wider horizons than ordinary Soviet citizens—and the small temporary society of the ship interpenetrated with the varied Black Sea inhabitants in limited but significant ways. They contrasted “high seas” of the world's great oceans, the setting for dangerous, daring and profitable exploits, with the enclosed drudgery of the Black Sea routes. The article shows how the Cold War inflected the imaginaries and practices of seamen and others. It argues that an anthropology of the sea can develop an analysis that combines regional specificities with visions that extend beyond the local and national.

scholarly journals The Baltic Sea and the Black Sea: security challenges and vulnerabilities after the Cold War

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-166
Author(s):  
Mihai Sebastian Chihaia
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
International System ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
The Cold War

After the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the USSR, the international system changed, becoming a unipolar one. Not only did this fact bring a diffusion of power and the reaffirmation of smaller actors/regional powers, the enlargement of several international organizations such as NATO and the EU, but also prompted regional transition and integration. This paper will focus on two regions that are fundamental in the security environment of Europe and its neighborhood: the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Both areas suffered important changes after 1990. Furthermore, the areas mentioned have been a rendezvous point for several elements such as the shifting balance of power, political ambitions of smaller states, transit point for global trade routes (Scandinavia, Baltics and the Black Sea) and energy security issues. The article will take into account the concerns of the actors, outlining their security challenges and vulnerabilities as well as identifying similarities between countries from the two regions addressed. The comparison will further address the issues the regions faced after the end of the Cold War such as the emergence of new countries, political and economic transition with emphasis on cooperation initiatives and integration in NATO and EU. The main aim of the article will be to frame the similarities and differences of the political and security environment of the two regions. The structure of the paper goes as follows. I will start by laying out a theoretical framework centred upon the concept of security and what it involves and after that I will introduce and define the two regions discussed in the article, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea areas and outline the context each of them faced after the end of the Cold War. The next section will address the threats to the stability of the regions, creating the frame for the last part of the article which will make a comparison between the Baltic and the Black Sea areas.

Geopolityka regionu Morza Czarnego a Unia Europejska

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-18
Author(s):  
Tomasz Stępniewski
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
New States ◽  
Soviet Space ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Former Ussr

The geopolitical rivalry and the clash of interests between the superpowers have been present in the Black Sea region for centuries. During the Cold War when the East-West divide was at its height, the Black Sea was “excluded” from geopolitical competition between the superpowers as it became the domain of mainly one player – the Soviet Union. The dismantling of the Pax Sovietica and the subsequent collapse of the Cold War gave rise to a new geopolitical situation in the Black Sea region. The former USSR was superseded by the Russian Federation and other political entities independent from Russia, yet having strong bonds with the region both in terms of geography and their political and cultural interests. These were new states like Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also former Soviet satellite states such as Bulgaria and Romania. In other words, the collapse of the USSR entailed the emergence of a new system of geopolitical power in the post-Soviet space.

1. Theories of US foreign policy

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Offensive Realism ◽  
Defensive Realism ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter examines some of the competing theories that have been advanced to explain U.S. foreign policy. In trying to explain the foreign policy of the United States, a number of competing theories have been developed by International Relations scholars. Some theories focus on the role of the international system in shaping American foreign policy while others argue that various domestic factors are the driving force. The chapter first considers some of the obstacles to constructing a theory of foreign policy before discussing some of the competing theories of American foreign policy, including defensive realism, offensive realism, liberalism, Marxism, neoclassical realism, and constructivism. The chapter proceeds by reviewing the theoretical debate over the origins of the Cold War and the debate over the most appropriate grand strategy that the United States should follow in the post-Cold War era.

Diplomacy and War

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Weiner ◽  
Paul Sharp
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Order ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Military Diplomacy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Invasion Of Iraq

Scholars acknowledge that there is a close connection between diplomacy and war, but they disagree with regard to the character of this connection—what it is and what it ought to be. In general, diplomacy and war are assumed to be antagonistic and polar opposites. In contrast, the present diplomatic system is founded on the view that state interests may be pursued, international order maintained, and changes effected in it by both diplomacy and war as two faces of a single statecraft. To understand the relationships between diplomacy and war, we must look at the development of the contemporary state system and the evolution of warfare and diplomacy within it. In this context, one important claim is that the foundations of international organizations in general, and the League of Nations in particular, rest on a critique of modern (or “old”) diplomacy. For much of the Cold War, the intellectual currents favored the idea of avoiding nuclear war to gain advantage. In the post-Cold War era, the relationship between diplomacy and war remained essentially the same, with concepts such as “humanitarian intervention” and “military diplomacy” capturing the idea of a new international order. The shocks to the international system caused by events between the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 have intensified the paradoxes of the relationship between diplomacy and war.

scholarly journals The Problem of Illegal Emigration of the Mennonites of the Black Sea Region in the 1920s-1930s (According to the Memoirs of the Families A. Herman and M. Reuter)

2020 ◽  
pp. 62-66
Author(s):  
O.Y. Redkinа ◽  
T.P. Nazarova
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
Far East ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
Support Mechanism ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
The Far East

The article discusses the causes of illegal emigration of the Mennonites from the Black Sea region, identifies the main routes and shows the role of Mennonite mutual aid in the implementation in the 1920s-1930s. Mennonite memoirs show that the main causes of emigration were repressions against the wealthy layers of the village, the anti-religious struggle that affected wide circles of Mennonites. Young Mennonites suffered from the inability to obtain a higher or secondary specialized education, while maintaining their religious beliefs; they were afraid to be arrested as members of the families of the anti-Soviet element. The main routes of illegal emigration passed through the western regions of Russia to the Baltic countries, to Poland and Germany; through Central Asia to China, through Transcaucasia to Turkey and Iran, through the Far East to China and further to the countries of North and South America, to Germany. The Far East was the most successful channel of illegal mass emigration in the region of Blagoveshchensk, where refugees were supported by local Mennonite communities, the Harbin Refugee Assistance Committee, Protestant missionaries, the German consulate in China, and co-religionists in the United States and Canada. Mutual assistance at the interpersonal level, as well as between relatives and communities in different regions, continued to play the role of an effective support mechanism, maintaining ties within the Mennonite community.

scholarly journals Turkey& the Black Sea basin After the cold war

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (27) ◽  
pp. 337-359
Author(s):  
waleed Mahmoud Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
The Cold War

scholarly journals Containment Amerika Serikat terhadap Fenomena Rise of China dalam Perspektif Hegemoni Realisme by Ari Arseno

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Setia Budhi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
China’S Rise ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
China's Rise ◽  
Offensive Realism ◽  
Containment Strategy ◽  
The Cold War

This paper explains about the United States’ containment strategy towardChina, the argue that the United States’ strategy of containment aimsto contain the China’s rise phenomenon. After the Cold War, China hasdeveloped as a powerful country which has capability to threaten theUnited States’ ‘sole hegemon’ status. Containment is the chosen strategy tokeep Washington at the top of the hierarchy of international system. Theauthor divide this paper into three sections, the first show the relationsthe United States builds to make containment works. Then in the sectiontwo, the author explain the United States’ containment strategy withJohn Mearsheimer’s offensive realism theory. The last section, I end thispaper with conclusion that consists of important points of the paper.

Origins and Entrenchment of the Cold War, 1945–1953

2021 ◽  
pp. 113-116
Author(s):  
George W. Breslauer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
The Cold War

Several theories are considered to explain the determinants of Cold War between the United States and the USSR, countries that had been allies until 1945. If Stalin, not FDR, had died in 1945, there might have been a greater prospect of continued cooperation between the two great powers.

Unpacking the Contemporary Strategic Problem in Northeast Asia

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-160
Author(s):  
Barry Buzan ◽  
Evelyn Goh
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Contemporary Problem ◽  
Northeast Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Political Understanding ◽  
Second World

Chapter 4 begins in present-day NEA, and unpacks its core strategic problem of uncertainty associated with an apparent power transition, relating it squarely to the enforced alienation between the two indigenous great powers, China and Japan. It argues that neither a purely power-political understanding nor one that overly emphasizes nationalism and domestic impediments has been especially helpful to advancing our understanding of how Sino-Japanese alienation serves to constrain the development of East Asia’s post-Cold War order. Instead, one should understand the contemporary problem as resulting from the disintegration of the region’s post-Second World War settlement that centred on the United States acting as a ring-holder between China and Japan. Introducing the great power bargain framework, it shows how we might usefully distinguish between the constitutive and regulative aspects of such bargains. It then employs this framework to analyse Sino-Japanese alienation after the long nineteenth century, examining how efforts to create a partial new bargain between 1945 and 1989 were eventually undermined by the two countries’ changing characters and politics after the Cold War.

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