Xenophon Paper 2 pdf - ICBSS

INTRODUCTION
Panagiota Manoli
This Xenophon Paper titled “Unfolding the Black Sea Economic Cooperation: Views
from the Region” is the product of collective work and reflection by researchers from
the Black Sea region.
The Black Sea is often cited as the cradle of civilisations, a bridge between East and
West, a land rich in cultural diversity. Most literature focuses on the historical and cultural
elements of the Black Sea countries while current international relations writings mostly
refer to the ‘frozen’ conflicts that represent the greatest challenge to the future development
of the region.
This publication looks towards another direction by focusing on the possibilities of
‘cooperation’ and region building. It thus represents an effort to cast some light on the
efforts to enhance intra-regional links and forge a new regional structure: the Black Sea
Economic Cooperation (BSEC).
The BSEC’s mission according to its Charter is ‘to promote a lasting and closer cooperation
among the states of the BSEC region’. 1 Though a post Cold War structure, the BSEC
has roots in the early 1990s, i.e. prior to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The idea
belonged originally to the Turkish ambassador to the United States Sukru Elekdag, who
announced this project for the first time during a panel discussion organised in Istanbul
in January 1990. 2
The convergence of the ideology between the Turkish and Russian leadership in 1991
set the grounds for the emergence of the BSEC as an initiative. The creation of a tool
to facilitate economic interaction around the Black Sea along the lines of economic and
political liberalism was advocated by both sides. The idea was soon embraced by all
littoral states and states beyond the Black Sea that shared economic and political
interests (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania
and Ukraine). Especially in the 1990s the high degree of diversity – in terms of the level
of economic development, market size, population, etc. – of the then eleven member
states (Serbia joined later in 2004) of the BSEC undermined the common identity of the
new structure.
1 BSEC (1998), Charter of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, preamble, para. 6, Yalta, 5
June. Text available on http://www.bsec-organization.org.
2 On the conceptualisation of the BSEC see Manoli, Panagiota (2004), The formation of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation: A Case Study of Subregionalism, PhD dissertation, University of Warwick.
X E N O P H O N P A P E R no 2 7