The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) is a well-organized framework of thirteen European Union member states, although it is not an organization per se by the international relations textbooks. The inceptors (Poland and Croatia) advanced a more flexible format of cooperation, a diplomatic ploy to reconcile capitals suffering from the (un)recognized desire to be seen as the alpha-specimen in the Central and Eastern European region – or, putting it otherwise, as “hub”, “turntable”, “facilitator”, “bridge/binder”, “moderator/mediator”, “stability broker”. Poland, with a geo-political-economic DNA that contains the most numerous such genes, teamed-up with a smaller country, Croatia, in order not to be accused of disguised imperialism or Intermarium nostalgia. As a reminder, Poland is famed for the prodigious post-1989 reforms that secured it the status of precocious member of both NATO and the EU, where it displays an outright and outspoken “price-maker” philosophy, rather than acting as a receptive and resigned “policy-taker”. Perceived as a privileged partner and promoter of the US in the region, it wisely accepted later on, in the 3SI, the co-leadership of Bucharest, so as to gain some critical mass, also subtly indulging Berlin’s (and Brussels’) grip, so as to keep “the least closest” friends closer. The pragmatic stake of the 3SI structure? Infrastructure(s): transportation, energy and digital. Connecting the East from North to South.
