A Case Study in Cooperative Security: The Greater Black Sea Area

Abstract

This chapter provides a practical study about perceptions of sovereignty and security in a regional framework. The object of analysis is the Regional Stability within the Greater Black Sea Area Working Group of the PfP Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes. This Working Group is co-chaired by Romania, having its Permanent Secretariat hosted by the Romanian Institute for Political Studies of Defense and Military History. The insiders’ perspective focuses on the role which integrated expertise plays in the consolidation of national sovereignty in new independent states, based on specific mechanisms of academic cooperation. The epistemic community encompassing security experts from the Greater Black Sea Area states has developed a data base on the regional security risks and threats in order to produce mutual trust and a long-term common strategic culture for the benefit of the region. It is therefore described as a type of sovereignty based on interdependence, the classical Westphalian norms being questioned by the common interest to create a cooperative security culture.