As part of the South Caucasus Security Forum 2018, we have published and distributed a series of policy papers. The publications are part of a project aiming to identify the most fundamental gaps in EU policy towards the Black Sea and South Caucasus and bridging them through concrete policy recommendations by representatives of academia and civil society. The project is implemented by Stratpol – Strategic Policy Institute and supported by the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation — A Project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Find the full publications in PDF below!
EU Policy Gaps Towards the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict: Action Long Overdue
Author: Ondřej Zacha, Research Fellow, Stratpol – Strategic Policy Institute
The Nagorno Karabakh conflict is inching towards another escalation. The situation has been deteriorating for the past decade and the EU is notoriously underrepresented in the peace process. This paper aims to uncover the gaps in EU policy towards the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and to overcome these gaps by concrete policy recommendations. It explores the various approaches and policy tools the EU employed towards the conflict since the ceasefire signed in 1994. Then, it presents concrete policy recommendations and debates their feasibility. The policy options are presented using SWOT policy analysis, which aims to identify internal strengths and weaknesses of a policy and its external opportunities and threats.
Read the full paper here…
EU’s Grit With Regionalization: An Antidote for the South Caucasus and the Black Sea
Author: Syuzanna Vasilyan, Research Fellow, Institute for European Studies, Universite Libre de Bruxelles
Despite a plethora of benevolent attempts directed at cultivating regional cooperation in the South Caucasus not only the ‘seeds’ have not born fruit but the ‘regional’ soil has become ruptured and the Black Sea area has become even more segregated. This stands out as a puzzle to be solved. This policy paper with the brief traces EU’s policy of fostering regional cooperation identifies the problems/gaps along the trajectory and puts forth pertinent policy advice to reverse the current trends of estrangement into regional dialogue. To do so, it stratifies EU’s vast policy into concentric nano, micro, meso and macro circles comprising various interlocking geographic terrains. Concomitantly, it carries out a custom-made SPEST (Security, Political, Economic, Social, and Technical) analysis deemed appropriate for the present case-study.
Read the full paper here…
Developing New Black Sea Partnerships: Shaping the Area for Future EU Enlargement
Author: Kakha Gogolashvili, Director, Centre on EU Studies, Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies
The involvement of the EU in the Black Sea region was initiated mainly by bilateral energy and transport related development projects. The EU enlargement accepting Romania and Bulgaria fuelled its interest and ambition to consolidate the fragmented region. The EU employed various tools with the Black Sea littoral states. The European Neighbourhood Policy (2003), Black Sea Synergy (2007) and further the Eastern Partnership (2009) served as tools for democratic transformation, an internal constellation of the region and closer cooperation with the EU. Russia’s aggressive behaviour brought a considerable change in the security environment of the region recently. To keep its Black Sea policy dimension active, the EU will need to come with more security tools and instruments to increase the resilience of the partner states and make them able to keep their European aspirations. It should do this by coordinated EU-NATO efforts and bringing more powerful policy instruments to Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, aiming at their gradual integration.
Read the full paper here…
