Regional rivalry over the countries of the Balkan Peninsula

Abstract

The Balkan region has been of great importance since ancient times, and because of its many geopolitical advantages, this region has become the focus of the ambitions of international powers. This region constitutes a transit bridge linking the continents of Asia and Africa with the European continent, and this amphibious region combines the land geographical orientation towards the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, and the maritime geographical orientation towards the countries of the Old World and the New World across the Mediterranean, which is a major sea route for global trade between the East and the West. During the Cold War, this strategically vital region was a land over which the influences of the socialist Eastern bloc countries and the capitalist Western bloc countries converged. As there were political entities, some of which were associated with the Eastern bloc by joining the Warsaw Pact (Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Hungary), and others were linked to the Western bloc by joining the North Atlantic Treaty (Greece and Turkey), and between the two contradictory Yugoslavia emerged as federal states with a neutral system among the non-aligned countries.