NATO Public Diplomacy in the Mediterranean‒Black Sea Region

The article analyzes the main forms and methods of NATO’s public diplomacy in the Mediterranean-Black Sea region in the context of significant geopolitical processes taking place in this regional space. The aim of the study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the policy of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the field of public diplomacy in one of the most strategically important regions of the world. The main objectives include the consideration of the key areas of the NATO Public Diplomacy Division’s work, the analysis of the projects implemented by the Alliance in the sphere of public diplomacy, as well as determining their impact on the geopolitical processes in the Mediterranean-Black Sea region. In order to achieve the overall goal general scientific theoretical methods such as analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction and comparison are used. The conclusion is made that in recent decades the North Atlantic Alliance has been trying to strengthen its potential in the sphere of public diplomacy in the Mediterranean-Black Sea region by various methods because of its strategic importance. Moreover, in the near future NATO will increase its activity in this regional area. Special attention will be paid to developing relations with potential candidates for membership, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine. Besides, in the medium term, NATO will continue to actively cooperate with Moldova and Serbia, which, despite their officially declared neutral status, are gradually moving closer to the Alliance. Most of the ongoing public diplomacy projects will be openly anti-Russian, because NATO initiatives will be aimed at ousting Russia from the humanitarian sphere of the Mediterranean-Black Sea region’s states.