The EU, Comprehensive Security and the Changing Geopolitics of the Black Sea

The chapter studies the EU’s evolving approach to comprehensive security in the wider Black Sea region from 2007 up until today. The key argument is that the regional developments in the Black Sea have challenged European security narratives and self-perception, and these events have led not only to the transformation of the EU’s Black Sea policies but also to the EU’s self-perception as an actor. In other words, Russia’s policies in the Black Sea region have changed the EU’s “ontological security”. The changes in the EU’s external security ontology are a legitimate and prudent response to Russia’s use of military force and revisionism in the Black Sea region. However, cooperative security frameworks prevail as an internal European strategy, but their credibility depends on the EU’s and NATO’s ability to maintain credible deterrence in the region against Russia. Hence, cooperative and realist security frameworks are both integral and valuable parts of the European security landscape.