Commission on the Black Sea

The fourth Policy Report is online: Democracy and Good Governance in the Black Sea Region

For decades the existence of the east-west conflict meant that the Black Sea was a systemic watershed. It was perfectly clear which of the riparian states took its bearings from which political philosophy and thus from which socio-economic and socio-political model. As a result the region was divided into two distinct parts. This did not apply only to security policy, but to the political and societal character of the states involved in the conflict. The tectonic shifts which occurred after the demise of the Iron Curtain created new opportunities and the possibility of democratic reform in the region, but also new dangers and a multiplicity of developments which were more confusing than anything that had been seen for decades.