EUROPE AND THE DANUBE: The Danube in the geopolitical strategies of European countries

There are 44 countries in the world without access to the sea and the world's oceans, and Serbia is among them. This fact is certainly reflected in the geopolitical possibilities of the state, as it limits it in a number of factors (from economic to security). Also, a country that has no access to the sea is not considered a full-fledged state. However, Serbia has the Danube.

It is precisely this fact that has caused the West to try to deny Serbia access to the sea and oceans since the beginning of the 19th century, about which there are several excellent monographs and studies. Of course, one can add to this policy the separation of Montenegro from Serbia, as an undoubtedly ethnically Serbian country. The point of this separation is actually to prevent Serbia from having access to the Adriatic.

However, Serbia has the Danube, which allows it to move towards the North and Baltic Seas, or towards the Black Sea. However, this does not suit the Western powers either, and they have begun to support separatists in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in order to deprive Serbia of this river route to the seas. It is no secret that NATO is behind everything and its desire to turn the Danube into an internal waterway exclusively controlled by this militaristic alliance, with the desire to use this communication for further penetration into the East, i.e. the Caucasus.

In this sense, the European Union has adopted a Strategy for the Danube, but, it should be added, that the member states also have their own geopolitical strategies regarding this river. Therefore, the organization of an international scientific conference on the geopolitical strategies of European states related to the Danube seemed to us to be a responsible reaction to current events.

Also, based on the insight into the bibliography presented by Dajana Lazarević, it is clear that Serbian scientists have not paid particular attention to the Danube, that is, there are very few works with a geopolitical approach to this topic. With the collection, we have partially “covered” this deficiency, but also opened the topic for further research.

The collection contains 26 papers. Here are some:

Milomir Stepić, The Danube in the Context of Current European and World Geopolitical Regrouping;

Zoran Milošević / Emma Kraktus, The Danube, NATO and the European Union Strategy for the Danube;

Braco Kovačević, The Danube in Geopolitics;

Vanja Glishin, The Danube in the Perspective of German Geopolitics;

Kirill Shevchenko, Oleg Kazak, The Danube in Geopolitical Plans and Socio-Political Thought of Austria-Hungary in the Interwar Period (1918-1938);

Aleksandra Kolaković, The Danube in the Geopolitical Strategies of France: The Role of Science and Scientists in Historical and Current Perspective;

Emil Milanov, The Significance of the Danube River for the Formation of Geopolitical and Geoeconomic Strategies of the Danubian Countries;

Dragan Trailović, The Significance of the Danube for the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative: Potential Benefits and Possible Challenges;

A. V. Baranov, The Significance of the Danube in Russian Geopolitics from the 18th to the Beginning of the 21st Century;

Eduard A. Popov, THE DANUBE – RUSSIA’S ETERNAL RETURN: A Historical Retrospective and Geopolitical Perspective;

Vakulina Elena, Belous Natalia, Perspectives of Russian Interests on the Danube;

Vahitov Rustem Rinatovich, The Eurasian Image of the Danube;

Dajana Lazarević, The Relevance of the Geopolitics of the Danube in Contemporary Serbian Science.