Caspian–Black Sea Security Challenges and the Regional Security Structures

Abstract

The Caspian–Black Sea region is perceived today as an extremely important area on the global geopolitical map, due to the presence of both huge reserves of natural resources and major strategic transport corridors, the control of which will determine the shape of the geostrategic landscape in Eurasia, both in the present and in the future. For these reasons this region has become a focus of attention for geopolitical, politicomilitary, economic, and other interests of the primary global and regional powers. From another point of view, however, a major geopolitical feature of the region is a growing security vacuum, which could potentially endanger the security and stability of all of Eurasia. How can this security vacuum be filled? What political force or structures should be responsible for the future stability and security of the region? Putative wearers of the mantle of responsibility in the Caspian and Black Sea region include Russia and its satellites from the Collective Security Treaty; NATO, along with potential NATO members in the region; and regional countries and regional security structures. In this essay, I will try to analyze the current security situation in the region, including the major threats and security challenges. I will then offer some speculations about possible alternatives for the future, including regional security structures and crisis management. Today the internal composition of the region is quite chaotic, and a clear geopolitical structure is absent. The interests of the various regional actors are divergent. For a long time, the region was a sphere of interaction and mutual penetration of various cultures and civilizations, as well as an area of constant conflict between external geopolitical formations. Because of the long-term domination of foreign powers, a consolidated core system of interests on the part of the Black Sea area countries never emerged. The countries of the region did not become considerable geopolitical powers, and usually looked for external patronage or maneuvered between various external powers that competed for domination, seeking to deploy the natural and human resources of the region for their own interests. By the end of the twentieth century, the regional structure witnessed a great many political and economic changes. Today, when most of the countries in the region face tasks of economic and social modernization, the creation of different cooperative regional systems is a logical alternative, one that corresponds to the interests of the region as a whole. The complementary interaction of different economic models could offer new possibilities that are difficult to realize within the old structures. These re-