THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BLACK SEA IN THE ROMANIAN FOREIGN STRATEGY

Europolity: Continuity and Change in European Governance, 2014

After the Cold War, the chance of Romania was achieved by two strategic objectives of the Romanian foreign policy, the accession to NATO and integration into the European Union. Thus, Romania was able to escape the area dominated by the “rough power politics” and to take shelter in this “consensus” area, where there are rules and clear mechanisms for adjusting any conflicts with the guarantee to respect the national interest of each member state.The article presents the overall framework and also analyzes the main issues and ideas that are important and of which depends a good foreign policy. In this regard, it must be reminded and also emphasized the strategic importance of Romania as a country bordering the Black Sea, within the context of its position at the boundary of the two organizations. Therefore, it is argued that one of the main goals of foreign policy should be oriented towards enhancing the role in the Black Sea region as this objective concerns not only Romania’s inter...

Constanta Maritime University Annals, 2011

The subject of this presentation is to emphasize the intrinsic relationship between Romania and Black Sea, taking into consideration geopolitical issues. From this point of view it is presented Romanian interests regarding Black Sea and the extended region of Black Sea, taking into account the fact that it doesn't represent a conjunctural or a historical issue or a consequence of actual geopolitical evolutions. In order to sustain and promote these interests it is much and much stressed the idea that Romania has to become a regional maritime power. This represent a condition for promoting national interests in Black Sea region. Romanian interests in Black Sea region can be compeled by risky economic, military-political and military factors. Promoting our interests in Black Sea region, Romania becomes a factor of stability in the region, contributing at the same time to a stability and security climat, both in Black Sea region and in the extended region of Black Sea.

(V. INTERNATIONAL BLUE BLACK SEA CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS) The end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union led to important changes in the Black Sea Region; three more countries (the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Georgia) emerged and these countries with Bulgaria and Romania entered into a political and economic transformation period. During these processes, the Russian Federation was in attempt to reestablish her sphere of influence over the post-Soviet countries. At the same time, a new development occurred outside the Region: the NATO enlargement and then EU enlargement. This dual enlargement of Euro-Atlantic institutions expanded towards to the Black Sea Region in the second decade of the post-Cold War period. Within the framework; Romania and Bulgaria among others started to establish relations with the NATO and the European Union and managed to become member states. As countries which had located in the Soviet sphere of influence, then entered into the European Union and joined NATO Alliance; Romania and Bulgaria have a specific positions in the Black Sea Region. They with Turkey have been neighbor to a giant state, the Russian Federation and countries in her Near Abroad. Their positions towards Russian Federation and their policies –either revisionist or pro-status quo have been effective in competitive stances of great power towards the Black Sea Region. In this study, Romanian and Bulgarian integration process into the Euro-Atlantic institutions and transformation of their policies towards the Region; which are parallel to each other; and its effect on security are aimed to be laid down in four parts (during the Cold War, the first decade (1991-1999), (2000-2014), after 2014) with a specific attention to the Romanian engagement into missile shield system

International relations and diplomacy, 2019

The Strategic Partnership, launched in 1997 with the purpose of becoming an advanced mechanism of bilateral cooperation between Romania and the United States regarding fields of strategic interest for both countries, is an important element of maintaining peace and stability in SouthEastern Europe and in the Black Sea area. The Partnership determined a substantial evolution of the bilateral relations based on an intense political speech, as an important aspect for the regional security, and promoted democracy near the Euro-Atlantic community. Romania's relation with the United States, being focused on security aspects, proves its utility, considering that to this day the North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union do not have a common strategic vision regarding the Wider Black Sea Region. This is due to conceptual differences and to the fact that, unlike Central and Eastern Europe-where the integrations of NATO and EU were linked, in the Black Sea area, the situation is different, having in mind that only Romania and Bulgaria have been part of these structures. This study's purpose is to present both the evolution of this cooperation format between Romania and the United States in the last two decades and its relevance for the new regional security system. In the circumstances in which the events in Ukraine in 2014 lead to unprecedented tension (Post-Cold War) between the Russian Federation and the Occident, the USA's involvement in ensuring the security of the extended Black Sea Region gains even more relevance.

Drawing on classical realism, the article investigates whether the Three Seas Initiative (3SI), just like the other subregional projects that Romania took part in since joining NATO in 2004, has been part of Romania's external balancing towards Russia. In contrast to the 1990s, when the Black Sea area had not been mentioned in Romania's strategic documents, Bucharest came up with a grand principle (the internationalisation of the Black Sea area) and a grand behaviour (external balancing) once it joined NATO. Considering that the Black Sea area has played a central role in all major strategic documents issued by Romania since 2005, one could draw the conclusion that, at least formally, Romania has devised a grand strategy for the region. The article examines whether 3SI, with its apparent emphasis on desecuritisation, marks a turn in Romania's grand behaviour in the region, as Bucharest's previous subregional initiatives have been guided by securitised multilateralism. By bringing into analysis the main differences among 3SI and Romania's prior strategic initiatives in the area, i.e. the Black Sea Forum for Dialogue and Partnership, Black Sea Synergy, Black Sea Flotilla and Bucharest 9, the article pays heed to the question of change and continuity in Romania's grand behaviour in the Black Sea area. The article concludes that 3SI is in line with securitised multilateralism, which is the common denominator of all Romania's subregional projects in the region.

SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN AND BLACK SEA STUDIES, 2019

The article brings under scrutiny Romania’s strategic initiatives in the Black Sea area. Theoretically, our article rests on neoclassical realism which highlights the importance of subsystemic factors for states that seek to make strategic adjustments in a strained security environment. In our view, strategic expertise, or lack thereof, is another subsystemic factor, along with strategic culture and the political calculus of different leaders, that accounts for the emergence of misperceptions of a given security milieu. In the case of Romania, lack of strategic expertise has led to misjudgements of the security environment in the Black Sea area which have caused tactical errors, such as the systematic promotion of a high politics security agenda. Thus, the failure of Romania’s strategic initiatives in the Black Sea region are not only the systemic factors but also the subsystemic lack of strategic expertise, which reveals a deficit of state capacity. By annihilating the low level of agency that small states can actualize in a tense security environment, the lack of strategic expertise spawns peripheral regionalism, which is a failed subregionalism that occurs under specific security circumstances.

Studia Politica - Romanian Political Science Review, no. 15 (1): 21-37, 2015

This paper aims to uncover and assess the impact, the nature and the magnitude of exogenously articulated influences in the formulation and development of Romania’s foreign policy deliverables engulfing the Wider Black Sea Area during the first years of the post-EU accession period (2007-2010). In this context, the document will put an emphasis on the overlapped pattern of influences – shaped by EU, US and Russia – and which played a key role in the development of the regional geometry in terms of security, political and economical outcomes.

2013

Regional cooperation to improve security and stability materializes in the existence of many bi or trilateral intergovernmental relations in the initiation and development of regional initiatives and organizations. All these actions provide an opportunity to identify and develop viable assessment procedures of the strategic environment, risks and threats to security and stability in the area, and to the identifi cation of appropriate tools of crisis management. At the same time, a viable regional cooperation boosts the states of the South-East Europe area to have signifi cant contribution to resolving tension, crisis or potential confl ict that manifests in the area.