Mircea Codruţ MARIN

This essay discusses several institutional and political cultures, perceptions and intellectual myths that shaped Romanian decision makers choices regarding Eurasian strategies during the last decade. We started with the example of Nabucco pipeline, Romania’s endeavour to connect directly to the gas fields of Central Asia, the most recent and the most notorious Eurasian game. By taking into discussion subjective and conjunctural factors as well, we outlined what we considered to be the reasons that made the efforts paid in this direction to be unsuccessful in the end. Further, in the light of the resulting conclusions, we analysed the fundamentals of a broader Eurasian Strategy, focusing on the scenario of connecting the port of Constanţa and, at large, the country, to the most important East-West transcontinental routes. At the heart of this exercise we submitted to a critical examination some of the most influential narratives referring to the position of the Black Sea region towards the old and new Silk Roads.