Programme
Romania in the World
The “Romania in the World” Initiative seeks to map Romania’s relations with the key regions and great powers in the world today. In a world defined by great upheavals, geopolitical competition, a multiplicity of converging crises, Romania’s foreign and security policy deserves to be revisited. The key premise behind the Initiative is that current Romanian foreign and security policy is not up to the task and one of the key issues are related to preference formulation. The process through which Romania defines its regional, bilateral, and specific preferences vis-a-vis current events and actors is broken. The country often does not have a well specified position and set of preferences on key issues and in relation with key actors.
Beyond the strategic trinity of objectives (US, NATO, EU) and two general aims (security and status), the country has often been unable to take clear and well-informed positions regarding even neighbouring regions and issues. Way too often, Romania is reactive and simply adopts the latest position issued in Brussels and Washington, instead of investing in a process of reflection and preference-definition. We seek to correct this issue by supporting and publishing cutting edge reflective and policy-actionable analyses on Romania’s position in the world and what should the country seek to achieve in relation to key regions and great powers.
Three questions
The policy output of the “Romania in the World” initiative is guided by three overarching questions:
- What are the current relations of Romania with key regions and actors in world politics? What are current struggles, issues, and positive aspects of these relations?
- What should Romania seek to achieve in relation with key regions and great powers? In a gist: what should be Romania’s preferences/interests vis-a-vis these actors/regions?
- How should Romania achieve those preferences/interests? What tools and frameworks should be developed, updated, or changed to achieve the identified preferences/interests?
Analyses and events
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Academic publication
Steering or Building? How Crisis Type Shapes Organizational Change in the EU
The article examines how the type of crisis the European Union faces shapes change in its institutional organisation: when a crisis leads the EU to strengthen its capacity to steer, and when…
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Academic publication
Crisis Windows and Reversible Empowerment in the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy
The article studies the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and how crises open windows in which European institutions gain new powers, powers that member states can later take back.
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Academic publication
Ukraine
Chapter on Ukraine in the Palgrave atlas of state and quasi-state actors in great power competition.
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Academic publication
The political economy of civil–intelligence relations under the Iohannis presidency (in Romanian)
The chapter offers a framework for relations between politicians and the intelligence services: when competition between patronal and clientelist networks is intense, secret information, surveillance and access to coercive institutions gain political…
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Academic publication
Between the Hill and Aleea Alexandru: Romanian foreign policy in the Iohannis era (in Romanian)
Chapter on Romanian foreign policy during Klaus Iohannis’s two terms, in an edited volume that asks whether his presidency defines a distinct political era.
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Book
More visibility: Romanian foreign policy in a European and global context (in Romanian)
Edited volume, coordinated by Marius Ghincea and Cristian Chiscop, on Romanian foreign policy in its European and global context, published by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Romania. In Romanian.
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Book
The (Geo)politics of EU Enlargement: Romanian Perspectives on the Western Balkans
The book analyses EU enlargement in the Western Balkans from a Romanian perspective, from 2015 to mid-2024, including the effects of the war in Ukraine and regional tensions. It examines Romania’s role…
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Academic publication
From transformation to demarcation: explaining the EU’s shifting motivations of the enlargement policy
Drawing on content analysis of European Council conclusions from 1990 to 2024 and comparative case studies, the article shows that EU enlargement policy has followed three overlapping logics: transformation, stabilisation and demarcation.…
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Academic publication
Shrouded in Secrecy: Explaining Why Some Countries Refuse to Disclose Their Military Aid to Ukraine
The research note compares how Romania and Poland disclosed or withheld information about their military aid to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion. It tests three explanations (avoiding domestic backlash, external security concerns and…
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Academic publication
Protracted Transition: The Civilian Control Over the Military and Intelligence
Chapter on civilian control over the military and the intelligence services in Romania, in a volume taking stock of 35 years since the fall of communism.