Geopolitics of the Black Sea

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The Black Sea region has reemerged as a highly significant theater of geopolitical conflict--most dramatically as a battlefield in Ukraine’s struggle against Russia, in which other littoral states have played critical roles. Simultaneously, military action on the eastern flank of the region in the South Caucasus has involved Russia and at times Turkey decisively. Both Moscow and Ankara have also competed for influence in the region’s western flank where the conflicts among the successor states of the former Yugoslavia continue to smolder, fanned by disinformation campaigns, foreign political manipulation, and attempted coup d’etats. The region is crisscrossed by critical energy, commodity, and transportation networks which have been suppressed by inter-state conflict. Nationalism and conflicting historical narratives compete as former imperial spheres have been resurrected while uncertainty about future membership in the European Union or NATO perpetuates a security dilemma. The course methodology combines an education in foreign policy practice with academic analysis of geographic, economic, historical, military, ideological, and cultural regional factors to ask: What kind of Greater Black Sea region is likely to emerge from the conclusion of the War in Ukraine? Is the sea a strategic bridge between Europe and Asia, or a wall?