What should Turkey do to stabilize the Black Sea region

Abstract

With the end of Cold War and the attacks of 11 September 2001, the Black Sea region has been at the intersection of three global players’ respective regional points of view. These powers and their approaches are the Russian Federation and its Near Abroad Policy (NAP), the EU and its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), and the U.S. and its Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) and the Wider Black Sea Region (WBSR) policy. The current destabilisation of the region’s status quo as has happened in the form of the Ukrainian crisis is due to EU-Russian rivalry and their approaches to the region in the forms, respectively, of the EU’s Eastern Partnership and Russia’s Near Abroad Policy. I propose four foreign policy options for Turkey to pursue stability in the Black Sea region. These are: advancement of the frameworks laid out by the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC); development of existing bilateral co-operation with Russia in sectors such as energy and as well as expanding into other possible fields such as security; inclusion of Russia in all multilateral plans of action in the Black Sea region while balancing the great power rivalries and serving as mediator in the regional conflicts. Given the low likelihood of EU membership for Turkey and international and Transatlantic institutions ..