Global Security: in Search of a New Vision - Center for Strategic ...

Threats to the Black Sea Region and to Global Security 41
is only pos si ble if all major actors have the same basic under stand ing of this con cept. We are pleased to
observe that other inter na tional orga ni za tions such as the U.N. are begin ning to dis cuss the issue in the
same vein as NATO.
SECU RITY AND THE BLACK SEA REGION
I would now like to draw your atten tion to the Black Sea region, which has gained greater sig nif i cance
dur ing the last decade because it has become one of the most impor tant energy cor ri dors of the world.
The Black Sea has a set of unique fea tures. It is a gate way to three impor tant stra te gic areas—the Bal kans,
the Cau ca sus, and the Cas pian Sea—and because of its stra te gic loca tion at the cross roads of Europe,
Asia, and the Mid dle East, the Black Sea was one of the first ave nues for trade and diplo macy.
The Black Sea mar i time domain, the Turk ish straits, and the Turk ish main land, by means of pipe lines,
are now major medi ums for trans port ing Cas pian, cen tral Asian, and Rus sian energy resources to world
mar kets. As a con se quence, the amount of tanker traf fic along the Black Sea and Turk ish Straits has
increased remark ably. Approx i mately 145 mil lion tons a year of oil that orig i nated in the Black Sea basin
are trans ported through the Turk ish straits—in other words, 3 mil lion bar rels of oil are being trans ported
every day to global mar kets by 25 to 30 tank ers. Forty per cent of this amount, which is expected to reach
70% by 2020, is brought to Europe. This makes the issue of energy trans por ta tion secu rity even more
impor tant for both regional and global play ers.
Another char ac ter is tic of the Black Sea domain in the post-Cold War era is the chang ing sta tus of the
coun tries in the region in terms of their mem ber ships in dif fer ent inter na tional orga ni za tions. Today,
Tur key, Roma nia, and Bul garia are NATO mem bers. The Rus sian Fed er a tion, Ukraine, and Geor gia also
have a vari ety of rela tion ships with NATO through spe cific frame works. Bul garia and Roma nia are new
mem bers of the EU, the last of the inter na tional orga ni za tions to reach the Black Sea region. Tur key is
cur rently a can di date for the EU.
Because the Black Sea is an impor tant region for sta bil ity and secu rity in the Euro-Atlan tic area, many
regional cooperation schemes exist, including the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization
(BSEC) in the polit i cal-eco nomic field, the Black Sea Naval Coop er a tion Task Force
(BLACKSEAFOR), the Black Sea Coast Guard and Bor der Con trol Coop er a tion Forum (BSCF), Con fi -
dence Build ing Mea sures, and the Black Sea Har mony oper a tion in the mil i tary field. Regional coop er a -
tion cou pled with more wide-rang ing inter ac tion with the Euro-Atlan tic area is the key to a more sta ble
and secure region, which would have pos i tive effects on the whole of Eur asia.
Cur rently, we believe that the Black Sea mar i time domain pro vides a gen er ally sta ble envi ron ment,
con trary to some other parts of the world. How ever, coun tries within regions usu ally strongly wish to
coop er ate, and can be mod els for the world in main tain ing sta bil ity and peace.
GLOBAL THREATS AND AREAS OF CON CERN
The attacks of Sep tem ber 11 under lined the fact that in today’s ever-shrink ing world, no coun try is
immune from ter ror ism or other types of threats that have global and truly ter ri fy ing dimen sions. The
ter ror ist attacks that extin guished the lives of doz ens of inno cent civil ian women, chil dren, and stu dents
in Istan bul (Novem ber 2003), Ankara (May 2007), and Diyarbakir (Jan u ary 2008) are not any dif fer ent
from the attacks in New York, Madrid (2004), or Lon don (2005). Elim i nat ing these threats requires a
multidimensional approach that cannot hope to succeed without a genuine collective effort.
Cur rently, the threat posed by the PKK/KONGRA-GEL ter ror ists based in the north of Iraq rep re -
sents the sin gle big gest secu rity chal lenge fac ing Tur key. The PKK seeks sur vival through extor tion,
human traf fick ing, drug and weap ons smug gling, and homi cide. The fight against this orga ni za tion,