ABSTRACT
The Black Sea lies at the junction of two main geopolitical clusters: a maritime axis between the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean; the other stretching on land, where the strategic roles of Russia, Turkey, and Iran begin to define themselves with regard to European Union (EU) and the USA. Certainly, the relative development of China and the EU, necessarily concomitant with proportional decline of the USA and with Russia's "restoration", is still an underlying factor of paramount importance in the current debate. On the contrary, the Southern Caucasus, Turkey, Iran, and the Central Asian states in general deserve at least some brief consideration, with regard to the problems outlined, and in the context of three seas. Both Turkey and Russia have common interests around the basins of the three seas and in the name of their energy partnership. Moreover, Turkey and Russia share a common desire to build a multi-polar world, that is, to reject the hegemony of the USA.
