Xenophon Paper 2 pdf - ICBSS

The domestic political doctrine may be accompanied by a corresponding foreign policy
doctrine. For example, Russia’s ‘sovereign democracy’ concept is often backed by
rising ‘Eurasianism’, coming to signify the location the country is occupying not only
geographically, but also the specific place within the political concepts ‘West’ and ‘East’.
It is not only in political discourse, as a large portion of the Russian population does not
see itself as European. 20 Thus, Russia is a case of its own.
In Turkey, the Eurasian mood is also gaining ground. Both the Islamist and the secularists,
for different reasons, are increasingly attracted to the idea. The Islamists, quite naturally,
have used their traditional ties in the neighbouring Islamic states to renew Turkey’s
interest in the adjacent region. The secularists, annoyed by what they see as the EU’s
lack of fair treatment have been disenchanted with ‘Europe’ and might opt for ‘Eurasia’
instead. The Eurasian option, the thinking goes, will put Turkey in the centre of the
region and not on Europe’s periphery, thus restoring Turkish pride and rightful influence.
Azerbaijan too, has a very keen sense of its border identity between Europe and the
Muslim/Turkic part of Asia. Deeply ingrained in Armenia’s thinking are the country’s
roots and ties in Asia Minor and the Middle East. Therefore, the issue of identity is very
important in regional affairs. In contrast, the mythology of ‘return to Europe’ in Central
and Eastern Europe have served as a strong mobilising mechanism of the society and
as a ‘soft power’ instrument, serving the EU.
All that said, it is evident that regional cooperation in the Black Sea will witness decisionmaking
on the basis of variable coalitions. The most obvious ones are those based on
economic and energy interests. At the same time, there will be coalitions on institutional
basis, consisting of states that belong to different international structures which have a
supremacy over their national policies or/and impose a certain ‘socialisation’ on their
member states. Thirdly, there will be ‘value’ based organisations or coalitions, such as
the Community of Democratic Choice.
Conclusion
Bulgaria’s input into the BSEC will come not only as a regional Black Sea country, but
as a NATO and EU member. From Bulgaria’s vantage point, the Black Sea’s significance
will grow exponentially in the years to come. The first factor is the implementation of a
number of energy infrastructure projects, which for Bulgaria are the two oil pipelines of
Burgas-Alexandroupoli and Burgas-Vlora and the two gas transit projects of Nabucco
and the southstream project of Gazprom. Although each of the two aforementioned
pairs of projects has been considered as mutually exclusive, the implementation of all
four cannot be ruled out. Just a few months ago, any one of these was deemed unlikely
20 According to data by the Levada Center in February 2007, available at http://www.levada.ru/eng/eurussia.html
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