First encyclopedia dedicated to Black Sea geopolitics, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing

The first encyclopedia dedicated to the geopolitics of the Black Sea - "The Geopolitical Black Sea Encyclopaedia" - made by a team from the Institute of Political Science and International Relations of the Romanian Academy "Ion I.C. Bratianu", coordinated by Professor Dan Dungaciu, has been published by the British publishing house Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

"This encyclopedia is written for Western audiences, for whom the Black Sea is not a familiar subject, neither in history nor in the present. Hence the strategy we have adopted: we have tried to bring to the reader the main points to help them understand the developments at the Black Sea without making this approach very difficult. We did not exaggerate with the bibliography, reducing it to a minimum. The space allocated to this volume also forced us to a selection of entries in the encyclopedia that was not easy at all to realize," Professors Dan Dungaciu told AGERPRES on Monday.

He explained that "the starting point was obviously a local one, namely the perspective of Gheorghe Bratianu from 1942, the famous course taught at the University of Bucharest, never republished, which is of a provocative topicality".

"The main thesis of his visions was that the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the next inaugurated a stage that extended into the twentieth century, namely "a struggle for the Black Sea between Russia and Europe." We are still there even today," Dungaciu said.

The geopolitical encyclopedia of the Black Sea researches the region from various perspectives (political, historiographical, sociological, economic, military, culturological, geographical etc.) and emphasizes the geopolitical developments in this complicated area.

The volume brings together the analyzes of 19 authors (researchers from the Institute of Political Science and International Relations "Ion I.C. Bratianu" of the Romanian Academy and collaborating experts) on the edifying role that the Black Sea has assumed in the context of European geopolitics and of the climate generating Eastern, Balkan and Euro-Asian partnerships.

According to Dan Dungaciu, thanks to the generous summary (154 encyclopedia entries), the paper provides fundamental information and multilateral perspectives in the field of geopolitical interest, regarding the management of political, diplomatic, military, economic efforts of the states in the Black Sea contact and impact area (Russia, the European Union, NATO, the Balkan Peninsula and Turkey) in mitigating the effects of conflicts, specific to the "disruptive foyer" of Eurasia.

In 2019, the team from the Institute of Political Science and International Relations "Ion I. C. Bratianu" of the Romanian Academy published, at the same British publishing house, an extensive work dedicated to the Centenary of the Great Union of Romanians - "100 Years since the Great Union of Romania."