Managing the security of the railway system by the Black Sea: rivalry and state building in Romania

Abstract

The article sets out to explore the process of political centralization that Romania initiated in Dobrogea, a historical province by the Black Sea. In contrast to other approaches of the state building process that Romania coordinated in Dobrogea, our article employs the radial state perspective. This view lays emphasis on the security motives behind the political centralization process. The article examines the development of railway infrastructure in Dobrogea and reveals that the security reasons that fostered the building of railway infrastructure were preeminent in comparison to the economic ones. The article uses a refined version of Tilly’s well-known bellicist theory of state building. This perspective argues that not only the practice of waging war but also the threat of war may foster the development of infrastructural capacity. Thus, the article explores the way that Romania’s strategic rivalry with revisionist states by the Black Sea influenced the building of railway infrastructure in Dobrogea. A secondary objective of the article is to explain practices through which Romania has secured the railway infrastructure that provides access to the Black Sea.