Gateways of Eurasia: New Challenges, New Opportunities

Based on identifying the main areas that engage the mutual interest of Asian and European countries, this paper tries to determine the role and status of the new gateway states of Eurasia, with a particular focus on Romania. Building on this common ground could eventually lead to both sustainable economic growth and bridging the cultural gap which is keeping apart the two continents. Globalization has generated new challenges that could not be treated solely or unilaterally, by governments, international organizations or other stakeholders. Issues like climate change, increased inequalities, scarcity of resources, terrorism, digital divide, migration, in the forms they evolve nowadays were equally determined or driven by globalization. These global issues require a common effort to build resilience and to reverse the emerging trends which have already shown their negative impact in the aspects of our lives and global politics. Europe and Asia, despite the apparent distances and divisions which are highlighted lately by the competition on limited resources, competition on markets and currencies, on political and even philosophical disputes about the clash of civilizations, have always had a common ground of inhabitance. During the centuries, there were the natural and political factors and barriers that determined the openness, relationships and interconnections between the East and the West. In the era of knowledge society, could there be new gateways that brake the cultural and geopolitical barriers? How then could be redefined the roles of the old gateways?