Europe's Latest Tinder-Box

摘要

The Greater Black Sea Basin (GBSB) - the region between the middle of the Adriatic Sea in the west and the middle of the Caspian Sea in the east, between the Russian landmass in the north and the Turkish-Persian landmass in the south - is fast becoming Europe's latest tinder-box.rnAlthough traditional geographic textbooks identify the borderline between Europe and Asia as the line stretching westward along the water-crest of the Caucasus Mountains and then arching southward through the center of the Turkish Straits and then hugging the Greek littoral westward, the legacy of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union put the entire GBSB within the confines of Europe's geopolitics and geoeconomics.