The objective of this chapter is to examine the political, economic, and military-security developments in Romania since the fall of Nicolae Ceauşescu's hard core communist regime. In Part I I review Romania's democratization process, its economic performance, and security situation. Part II examines Romanian foreign policy since 1989 and Bucharest's campaign for NATO membership. Part III concentrates on matters pertaining to civil–military relations. In the last portion of the chapter the focus shifts to military reform and the conditions in the Romanian armed forces.

The second largest state in Eastern Europe, Romania has encountered immense difficulties in meeting its considerable potential. Its example shows the significance of the long-standing legacies of communism. There was minimal opposition to Ceauşescu's sultanistic regime evidenced by the fact that Romania was the only authoritarian state in Europe or South America where not a single full-blown samizdat (or underground) publication appeared. Extensive police terror made the development of any organized opposition to the regime all but impossible. Thirteen years after the Romanian Revolution, the country is ruled by former communists whose metamorphosis to genuine democrats is far more doubtful than that of their colleagues elsewhere in the region.

DOMESTIC POLITICS, ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE, SECURITY STATUS

Domestic Politics

The defining moment of the fall of the communist regime in Romania was the execution of the former dictator and his wife on 25 December 1989, as the culmination of a swift and farcical trial closed to the public.