Workshop 4: New Geopolitical Era for CEECs? The Danubian Region in IR 20 Years after the Fall of the Iron Curtain

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Workshop 4New Geopolitical Era for CEECs?The
Danubian Region in IR 20 Years after the Fall of
the Iron Curtain
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• Application of IR Theories to the Geopolitical
  Changes in the Danubian Region
• Ivan DIMITROV

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• Theory as a tool of political science
• To what extent IR theories are applicable to
  CEECs
• Major challenges
• West East reorientation of foreign policy in
  the CEECs
• Democratisation of the society
• Liberalisation economic transformation
• Inadequacies for explaining the course of events

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• Basic elements of the actual regional security
  environment within CEE
• Georgeta CHIRLESAN
• Dumitru CHIRLESAN

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• Goals
• Make a comparative analysis of NSS in 5 CEECs and
  search convergence with the ESS
• Focus on current future security environment in
  the CEECs
• Levels of analysis
• evolution
• When these documents were issued adopted
• Adoption mechanisms
• Precursory documents
• Connection with the moment of receiving the
  invitation to join NATO
• Analysis of the documents structure
• The content of the strategy

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• Conclusions of the survey
• Although similarities, particularities and
  differences were identified in relation to the
  five security strategies, the authors maintain
  that there is a good compatibility of the
  analysed documents, a common view in approaching
  the security issues and the ways of ensuring it
  at national and regional level
• The five countries describe the same major
  threats terrorism, the proliferation of WMDs,
  regional conflicts, failed states and
  non-democratic regimes, organized crimes, they
  share a common vision of the international order
  which is based on effective multilateralism, they
  all place NATO ont he first place in ensuring the
  collective defence

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• Besides, the coherence with the ESS is a solid
  one HU, CZ and SK have NSS which are profoundly
  coherent with the ESS, the nuances appearing only
  to those component which do not contradict the EU
  idea of security. Although PL and RO developed in
  a different manner their security documents, they
  are spinning on similar orbits around the ESS.
• the five states analysed in the present study
  have security strategy with common and also
  divergent elements.
• the common denominator conferring them the
  characteristic of a distinct group is given by
  their vision upon the preferred international
  order

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• the international legislation must reflect the
  changes in the character of the threats to
  security, must be adapted to the new changes
• the role of the UN Security Council is seen as
  important but not as primordial or major
• NATO is considered the most important security
  guarantor.
• By taking into account both the common points
  and also those in which the five strategies are
  divergent, the authors highlight that basically
  the five documents reflect the same general
  vision on the concept of security, with soft
  and hard accents, depending on the regional
  context elements.

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• Visegrad Group an experience of regional
  cooperation in CEECs
• Roland NACSA

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• Structure a cooperative forum
• Main objective to enhance integration to
  European institutions (EU and NATO). Once
  achieved, it had to be redefined
• Importance
• sub-regional cooperation
• Convergences Divergences
• Opportunities
• Enhanced cooperation may decrease the need to big
  States of the EU
• An example for Danube region?

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• Ethnic relations in Romania The prospects for a
  new accommodation
• Vassilis PETSINIS

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• Since the late 90s, the politics of interest
  seem to have superseded the politics of ID in
  Romanian political discourse. This development
  has resulted from a combination of catalysts,
  internal as well as external. With regard to the
  former, the popular mistrust towards Romanias
  mainstream parties has often prevented these
  parties from forming a majority government in
  their own right. This prompted their leaderships
  to assess the prospects for alliances with
  smaller political actors, including the
  Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (DUHR).

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• Meanwhile, the DUHR leadership started viewing
  their entrance to the halls of power as a good
  opportunity to realise, at least, their main
  aims. As part of the whole process, both sides
  have opted for a milder approach to the relations
  between the Romanian state and the Hungarian
  minority. As far as the external catalysts are
  concerned, the impact of Romanias entrance to
  the EU has been critical upon releasing the
  tensions between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians.

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• These processes, at the elite level, have been
  facilitated by certain social realities in these
  areas where Romanians and ethnic Hungarians
  coexist. In Transylvania, there may not exist an
  articulate notion of regional ID. Nevertheless,
  the awareness of a shared regional heritage seems
  to have established some common values and
  provided a common cultural substratum for
  Romanians and ethnic Hungarians.
• In an overall assessment, it would not be an
  exaggeration to speak, at least temporarily, of a
  Romanian success in the field of managing the
  ethnic relations.

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• Water ways 20 years of the close cooperation in
  Danube region
• Victoriia Liepkova

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• Marine Strategy for the EU
• Vital environment component of the future
  maritime policy
• objectives
• Protect more effectively the marine environment
  in Europe
• Achieve good environmental status of the EUs
  marine waters

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• Importance of the strategy
• Establishment of European marine regions on the
  basis of geographical and environmental criteria
• All member States are required to develop
  strategies for their marine waters (and
  cooperate)
• These strategies may help the definition of good
  environmental status at regional level

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• Reviews of the strategy will help countries
• To improve their management of the environment by
  establishing baseline conditions and recommending
  better policy implementation and performance
• To promote continuous dialogue between states by
  sharing information on their policies and
  experiences
• To stimulate greater involvement of the public in
  environmental discussions and decision-making

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• In addition to continuing and intensifying the
  above-mentioned tasks, the Strategy will provide
  Danube region countries with the opportunity of
  continuously assess the need for further action
  in the environmental field, with a viw to
  contributing to cleaner Danube.