New Regionalism or No Regionalism?: Emerging Regionalism in the Black Sea Area

The Black Sea area is a coexistence of multiple cooperation initiatives but also several tensions between riverain and neighbouring States: Russian Federation-Ukraine, Russian Federation-Georgia, Romania-Ukraine, Armenia-Azerbaijan and Turkey-Greece. The conflict-cooperation paradox together with ethnic fragmentation and shared culture, are two of the most salient peculiarities of the Black Sea Area. These paradoxes are not the only meaningful features for the evolution of the region; there are also issues such as ethnic and national identities, the failure of democratization processes, energy and pipelines, as well as the great powers' influence.This volume questions whether there is a Black Sea region. In order to reflect upon the possibility of the emergence of a Black Sea regionalism, a theoretical issue is at stake. What makes a region? Geographically, it is rather the intersection of several spaces: Eurasia, the Middle East, the Caspian space. Culturally, the historical inheritance of local populations is linked to the Ottoman, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Persian Empires. In terms of threat, certain convergence can be identified but there are also differences.A better understanding of emerging Black Sea regionalism in the global picture is best emphasized by putting it in a comparative perspective with other new regionalism in other parts of the world.