Abstract
The Security of the Black Sea: The Struggle in the Black Sea and Turkey's Policy in the Post-Cold War Era
During the Cold War, the Black Sea was not considered as the first priority for NATO states because of the superiority of the Soviet Union in the region. Romania and Bulgaria’s joining NATO in 2004, however, changed the balance of power in the region and the U.S. and NATO accelerated their efforts to contain Russia in the Black Sea. NATO’s policies to add Georgia and Ukraine to the pact, however, encountered harsh reaction by Russia, which felt encircled by the West in 2008 and 2014 respectively, and provided Russia opportunities to annex Crimea and to access the coasts in the breakaway region Abkhazia. The new chess game in the Black Sea enabled Russia to strengthen its Black Sea Fleet (BSF) and ‘Anti-Access Area Denial’ (A2-AD) capabilities, while the U.S. increased its presence in the region with new NATO bases in Bulgaria and Romania in addition to maritime exercises in the Black Sea. Turkey, on the other hand, as a NATO member closely cooperating with Russia in recent times, has been struggling to preserve peace in the Black Sea, focusing especially on preservation of the regulations of the Montreux Convention.
Keywords
Black Sea, NATO, A2-AD, Montreux Convention, maritime security.
