The idea of the ‘Baltic and Black Sea Alliance’ and the reaction to the creation of the Three Seas Initiative in Ukrainian political thought between 2015 and 2019

Abstract

In 2015, most Ukrainian political observers took Andrzej Duda’s words about the possibility of establishing a regional initiative as a renewal of the idea of Intermarium, a topic publicly discussed and debated in Ukraine since the 1990s but which has become particularly relevant since the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.
Therefore, the creation of the Three Seas Initiative in 2016 without Ukraine’s participation came as a surprise to Ukrainian political thought. In this article, the author describes the most characteristic and relevant opinions of Ukrainian politicians, scientists and journalists about the Three Seas Initiative. The analysis of the response of Ukrainian politicians makes it possible to create an objective picture of how Ukrainian political thought reacted to the creation and activity of the Three Seas Initiative, which has a significant impact on the further development of Ukraine’s regional policy and on Polish-Ukrainian relations.