Faced by a harsh international reality and the spread of hybrid warfare, the European Union (EU)’s peace project is shifting to a more dynamic mode, which places security and defence at the centre of policy-making. This urgency is reflected at the national level in Romania, where the strategic threat emanating from Russia is steadily increasing in intensity.

How does Romania view the challenges of a fragmented geopolitical landscape? What is the Romanian perspective on strengthening EU defence and security? These are the questions explored in the Romanian chapter of TEPSA’s latest book: “Security, Defence, and the Future of Europe: Views from the Capitals”, which gathers 42 European domestic perspectives on issues related to peace, security, and defence. How can recent experiences from Romania help us navigate this pan-European debate?

To discuss this question, TEPSA and the European Institute of Romania (EIR) co-organised “Security, Defence, and the Future of Europe: Perspectives from Romania”, an online public debate which took place on Wednesday, 24 June, from 10:45 to 13:00 (CEST) / 11:45 – 14:00 (EEST).

Watch the event recording

The event featured welcoming words from Oana-Mihaela Mocanu, Director General of the EIR. Following this, Mihai Sebe (Head Unit at EIR & Lecturer, University of Bucharest) presented the Romanian chapter of the book, before the event moved to an open debate between:

• Alina Bârgăoanu, Professor, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, member of the Advisory Board of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) and of EDMO’s task force on the war in Ukraine;
• Șerban-Filip Cioculescu, Researcher, Institute for Political Studies of Defence and Military History, Associate Professor at the University of Bucharest, Romania;
• Kinga Torbicka, Assistant Professor at the Department of Strategic Studies and International Security, Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw, Republic of Poland;
• Alexandru Georgescu, Senior Expert, National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest, Romania.

The event was moderated by Mihaela Pădureanu, expert, coordinator of Studies Unit, European Affairs Department, EIR.

This debate brought together leading experts and co-authors of TEPSA’s latest book on the future of Europe, edited by Michael Kaeding, Johannes Pollak and Paul Schmidt, and published by Springer Nature.