Regional cooperation in the Black Sea basin: what role for city diplomacy?

Abstract

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, extended geography encircling the Black Sea has begun to evolve into a multi-polar chaotic regional system and since then, this region has never been free of disputes over land frontiers. Besides border clashes, contestations over the control of energy resources and routes has been escalating since the 1990s and emerged as yet another dimension to explain the region’s diplomatic unpredictability. Under the shadow of these conflicts, regional players have been experiencing difficulties in formulating nonaligned and sustainable foreign policy strategies. They have been mostly unable to bring their common interests to the forefront and fallen behind in their regional integration objectives. Numerous cooperation attempts have remained inadequate in regards to standards such as scope, sphere of influence and permanency. Weak structure of regional integration and reluctance for its deepening create doubts about the region’s future stability. This paper first reviews the policy context of the Black Sea geography. It focuses on the Black Sea cities’ engagement into this context and mainly asks what kind of role, if any, cities play for facilitating diplomatic ties and alleviating systemic-level controversies. Building on the literature on city diplomacy, the paper elaborates on motivations behind and limits over such alternative levels of interactions and comments on their future geopolitical implications.