Russia has long used political, military, economic, informational, and clandestine tools against countries in the Black Sea region. In this report, the authors present elements of a Western strategy to counter Russian malign influence and aggression.

This book expands on the proceedings and subsequent contributions resulting from a NATO workshop held at Oxford University. The workshop on Black Sea security cooperation brought together key government and private sector stakeholders in the region. The first part of the book covers the security challenges to the Black Sea region. The second part looks at the prospects for shaping a new security architecture in the region, highlighting various regional law enforcement and counter-trafficking cooperation initiatives and proposing a range of technical security cooperation solutions to the ongoing challenges. The final part of the book offers perspectives on the South Ossetia conflict."--P. [4] of cover.

This book presents the opinions of experts and researchers from the Black Sea states with respect to history, security, politics, strategy, energy, and economy in the region, and explains various dimensions of the present international relations and problem areas from both theoretical and conceptual perspectives. Offering the reader a comprehensive approach that covers a wide range of affairs, it is hoped that this book will fill an important gap in international relations studies. While the added word “Blue” in the title indicates our shared aspirations for a clean and peaceful future, overall this book is intended to provide valuable academic assessments and share them with the wider world community, thus disseminating findings about the regional and global policies being pursued in the Black Sea region today.

Maritime Power in the Black Sea provides the first comprehensive assessment and evaluation of the comparative maritime power of the six littoral states in the Black Sea - Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Romania and Bulgaria. This book examines the maritime capabilities and assets of each of the six littoral Black Sea states and also considers the implications of the distribution of maritime power on both regional and international security. As such it makes an important contribution to the debate about what constitutes maritime power in the twenty first century and provides a thematic comparative study of the ability of each of the littoral states of the Black Sea to project maritime power.

The ring of countries bordering the Black Sea make up one of the unstable subregions of former Soviet republics, satellites and neighbours. This volume analyses the security issues in the Black Sea region and the development of mechanisms that would promote cooperation and conflict management.

The need for reliable energy supplies continues to increase with global development, and so energy security seems certain to remain a global challenge for the foreseeable future. The Black Sea area is now a major producer of energy for the wider region and beyond. This book presents the 12 papers delivered at the NATO Advance Research Workshop (ARW) Energy Security in the Wider Black Sea Area – National and Allied Approaches, held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in November 2011. The workshop, which was attended by a balanced mix of international experts, focused on research concerning crucial aspects of energy security and the role of NATO, and covered issues such as energy security as part of national security concepts, transnational energy projects in Central and Eastern Europe and the Wider Black Sea area, national approaches to energy security, critical infrastructure aspects of energy security, scientific and industry support for establishing sustainability and alternatives in energy security. The book provides an overview of national and allied approaches to the topic of energy security, and will be of interest to all those whose work involved the field of energy security in general, and the Black Sea region in particular.

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 the sea’s western coast where it meets former Soviet territory as well as EU candidate Turkey. Regional tensions include those over NATO enlargement, a US anti-ballistic missile system, access to the Black Sea, democratization, spheres of interest and the conflict zones of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, 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 Politics of the Black Sea Region: EU Neighbourhood, Conflict Zone or Future Security Community? explores and examines the many diverse political, security and economic interests that affect the region and the possible outcomes for it. By reviewing the wider history and examining the political systems and policies of the Black Sea nations and organizations as well as analyzing current tensions and future trends, it provides an invaluable, comprehensive and unique political guide to this fascinating area.