Description
Aiming to foster economic cooperation among member states leading them to ensure political stability and security, the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is important since warring states in the Black Sea region are its members. Recent example of it that Russia and Ukraine. The Russian-Ukrainian war indicates that BSEC fail to involved in regional crisis. One might claim that there is no reason for BSEC to involve in regional crisis since it is an economic organisation. However, when considering results of the war, it has critical consequences that all states of the region have been seriously affected. In terms of geopolitics the war impact economic cooperation within the BSEC. In terms of security, the war increases concerns for BSEC member states. Some of these countries are NATO members such as Greece, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria. They have been involved in efforts to strengthen security in the region. In terms of economy, the war has disrupted trade and economic ties between Russia and Ukraine and as well as Ukraine and other BSEC member states. Economic sanctions imposed by western countries, including BSEC members, against Russia have had economic consequences.
This paper aims to analyse the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on BSEC’s functionality. The Russian-Ukrainian war underscored the importance of regional cooperation organisations like BSEC in addressing security and stability challenges. The war highlighted that purely economic cooperation could not be divorced from broader security concerns in the BSR. Combining comprehensive review of BSEC documents and case studies, it asks “how did the Russian-Ukrainian war impact the perception of regional cooperation within the BSEC?”. It is argued that accepted notions/aims on regional organisation are creating ‘security community’ or managing conflicts/crises in the region. However, these are failed in BSEC example because states in the region are less enthusiastic about working together. The Russian-Ukrainian war indicated that even though countries in the region have been seriously affected by the consequences of the war, they could not be able to act in common under the BSEC umbrella. States rather prefer to take single actions. BSEC, therefore, has played no role in managing these conflicts/crises and its progress has been marred because of them.
