black sea

confidence among the region’s countries. Together
with the Community of Democratic Choice and
other regional initiatives like GUAM, all of them
contributed to the enhancement of regional cooperation
and exchanges, fostering a better security
environment.
Romania and Greece are both generally satisfied
regarding the huge achievements fulfilled
under BSEC umbrella, but they also acknowledge
some problems which need solutions, like the lack
of effectiveness in sensitive realms such as energy
infrastructures, proliferation of weapons, frozen
conflicts, also the slow mechanism of implementing
decisions and the lack of sufficient financial funds.
Together will the other members, they will try to
improve its activity and expand its cooperation
areas, for the well-being of the region’s peoples.
We are, now, at the beginning of a new century,
which we hope will bring much more cooperation
and a more stable environment than the previous
one. There is a need for more cooperation in the
Black Sea Area and even in the Balkans, of
identifying common interests and common visions.
Following the end of the Cold War, the international
community found new perspectives and new
mechanisms for ensuring regional cooperation and
stability.
As we all know, the Western Balkans had been
an area of confrontation, turmoil and instability
for a very long time. Now, the situation seems more
stable and predictable, as most of the countries in
Western Balkans are on their way to EU and NATO
integration. What the community of experts and
the policy makers had the opportunity to see, during
these long years, is that the logic of cooperation is
much more profitable and useful than the logic of
confrontation. Those states and also ethnicreligious
communities that tries to play a zero-sum
game against their neighbors and ‘rivals’ usually
failed in their strategies, had a difficult and inconomy
went bad. All of them eventually understood
that the security through cooperation is the best
answer to an international environment affected
by globalization and by the new risks and challenges.
A win-win strategy is the only reasonable
solution for a peaceful coexistence of the democratic
states. Of course, the strong states, those
which had a socio-political cohesion and a workable
economy, are in a much better position to enter
effective forms of cooperation than the weak or
failing states. The strong ones can rely on the
consent of their populations when they decide to
cooperate. The democratic consent is the best
guarantee for the popular support for inter-state
cooperation.
So, the Balkan countries were generally
speaking, successful in their efforts to modernize,
to transform and improve, and they did it by
accepting to play the game of the cooperation,
either in an institutionalized form, or in a informal
one. But we should remember that the most
effective organizations of cooperation have been
promoted from abroad. The Stability Pact for South
East Europe, the SECI and Royaumont initiatives
were all brought by the EU, US and other states
and organizations.
Today, the Greater Black Sea Region is in a
position that suggests some resemblance with the
Balkans ten years ago. There are very different
countries, with specific visions and interests, each
has its own history and foreign policy, and
therefore one cannot speak about a common Black
Sea identity.
In contrast with the Euro-Atlantic space,
security is not conceived, imagined as indivisible
and unique. Usually, each country wanted to
enhance its own security by itself or by a limited
form of cooperation. Like the Western Balkans,
the Greater Black Sea region is a regional security
complex. There are patterns of interaction ranging
from hostility and mistrust to partnership and even
friendship. This reflects historic preferences,
happy and unhappy events for each nation. But
history should not become an insurmountable
obstacle if states really want to forge cooperative
ties. Nobody is so radical to stand that the nations
should rewrite their history only to improve
relations with the other ones, by forgetting sensitive
issues, remembrances of discord and hostility.
History doesn’t have to be neglected because it is
a bench-mark, a vital element for a people’s identity.
Only it should be interpreted in a constructive way.
For those states which had a glorious history
of regional hegemony in areas like the Black Sea
and the Balkans, it must be clear that the ‘animus
dominandi’ spirit (quoting famous IR theorist Hans
Morgenthau 21 ) is not well suited for the contemporary
world. Hegemony, be it a hard military one
or a softer one, usually creates mistrust, rivalry
and even hatred. In a globalized world when
everybody can see closely what the others are
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