Romanian Journal of Political Science . volume 11, number 2, winter 2011 1 Romanian Academic Society . Editor Alina Mungiu Pippidi International Advisory Board Larry Diamond (Stanford University) Tom Gallagher (University of Bradford) Alena Ledeneva (University College London) Michael McFaul (Stanford University) Philippe Schmitter (European University Institute) Vladimir Tismaneanu (Maryland University) Helen Wallace (London School of Economics and Political Science) Editorial Board Gabriel Bădescu (Babeş Boliay University) Olivia Rusu-Toderean (Babeş Boliay University) Cosmina Tănăsoiu (American University in Bulgaria) Adrian Cioflanca (A.D. Xenopol Institute) Managing Editors Mădălina Doroftei Alexandra Bocse Ionuţ Vasiloiu © 2011 Romanian Academic Society ISSN 1582-456X 2 Romanian Journal of Political Science . TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. 3 POLSCI PAPERS ......................................................................................................................................... 4 CHALLENGES AT EU’S NEW EASTERN FRONTIER TWENTY YEARS AFTER USSR’S FALL ............................ 4 Liliana Popescu ........................................................................................................................................ 4 LILLIPUTIAN IN A GOLIATH WORLD: THE PREVENTIVE DIPLOMACY OF SLOVENIA IN SOLVING THE QUESTION OF KOSOVO'S INDEPENDENCE ................................................................................................... 39 Rok Zupančič, Boštjan Udovič ............................................................................................................... 39 DIVERGING PARTY OUTCOMES IN HYBRID REGIMES: THE CASES OF CROATIA, SERBIA, MONTENEGRO ... 81 Ivan Vukovic ........................................................................................................................................... 81 DECONSTRUCTING SECURITY ....................................................................................................................105 Ruxandra Ivan .......................................................................................................................................105 ‘BACKSEAT DRIVING’: EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN MOLDOVA .....................129 Cara M. Davies .....................................................................................................................................129 SOME HISTORIES STAY SECRET, BUT NOT ENTIRELY SILENT: DEALING WITH THE COMMUNIST PAST IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE ..............................................................................................................154 Roxana Radu .........................................................................................................................................154 POLSCI REVIEWS ..................................................................................................................................173 CRISTIAN PREDA, RUMANII FERICITI. VOT SI PUTERE DE LA 1831 PINA IN PREZENT ..................................173 Ioan Bulei ..............................................................................................................................................173 CALL FOR PAPERS ................................................................................................................................175 3 Romanian Academic Society . POLSCI PAPERS Challenges at EU’s New Eastern Frontier Twenty Years after USSR’s Fall Liliana Popescu1 Abstract: The paper is an attempt to identify main challenges of the EU and of EU’s eastern neighbours generated by EU’s enlargement in 2007, that resulted in the shift of frontiers eastwards. The paper finds that the present EU eastern frontier is placed in an area where countries in between are subject to influences and centripetal forces coming from both east and west. The focus in this article is on Moldova and Ukraine – which represents the ‚southern flank’ of the ’tectonic plate’ that separates EU from Russia. The first three parts of the article discuss the parallel evolutions of Russia and EU in the last twenty years, the development of the relationship between them and the impact of EU on Moldova and Ukraine, underlying some elements of Russia’s impact as well. The fourth part is dedicated to the identification and discussion of the challenges EU, Moldova and Ukraine are faced with as a result of the evolutions generated by the 2007 enlargement. Keywords: EU neighbourhood, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, europeanization, EU – Russia relations, Transnistria 1 Liliana Popescu is an associate professor National School of Political and Administrative Studies Bucharest, Faculty of Political Science. Her research interests are focused on the the process of European integration, on theories of European integration and europeanization. 4 Romanian Journal of Political Science . I. Russia and the European Union – parallel evolutions in the last two decades The fall of USSR has been accompanied and followed by a series of processes: from independence movements and declarations to breakaway attempts – some of them successful – inside the newly independent states. The end of 1991 – twenty years ago – brought with it the disintegration of the large soviet empire. The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s was a period of change, which brought liberalisation and eventually democratization in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Countries that were previously part of the soviet bloc – the satellites during the cold war – went through a reorientation process in their foreign policy. The need for security, both political and economic, drew them closer to their western neighbouring community, the European Community, in a period of neo-liberalism rise. The European Union – or the Common Market as it was best known during that time – started to be wooed by the newly liberated states which broke free from their soviet satellite status and acquired independence from the decayed soviet empire. The centripetal force of EU as well as the looming prospect of integration into a promising political entity named European Union after Maastricht made the former satellites to be active in their westwards orientation and seek concrete steps to get closer. Meanwhile, Russia, who inherited most of the assets of the former USSR – for good and for worse – attempted to reorganize its neighbours and keep them close to the centre. The Community of Independent States was formed in December 1991 – the same period of time when the European Council was drafting the Maastricht Treaty, to be signed in February 1992. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was founded in 1992 at the initiative of Russia, but gathered much fewer former republics than CSI – certainly not Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. If we follow the evolution in parallel of the two main power centres in Eurasia we may notice that while the Copenhagen Council was defining criteria to be followed and achieved by countries aspiring to become EU members (1993), Russia’s top advisors were coining the ‚near abroad’ concept. In the same year Yeltsin succeeded in having the 5 Romanian Academic Society . Duma deputies vote a new Constitution that enhanced considerably the powers of the president, thus creating the premises for a rather de-balanced share of powers and for the reversal of democratisation. And he succeeded that after a bloody episode in Moscow in which hundreds of people were killed or injured. The time of liberalisation and attempted democratisation of the Russian Federation – spanning roughly between 1985 – 1993 – was longer than the one in the beginning of the XX- th century, when the first Duma was set up, but lasted less than a decade. Nevertheless, the freedom of Russians increased in comparison with soviet times. Meanwhile, the liberal democratic character of the Russian regime slid from a burgeoning democracy during Yeltsin’s first years to a pseudo-democracy in the late Putin’s years and Medvedev – to use Larry Diamond’s concepts (1996). While EU strengthened itself in the mid 1990s with the richest wave of enlargement with three neutral countries: Sweden, Austria and Finland, Russia got heavily caught in the first Chechen war. Two years later, the economic crisis that started in South East Asia severely hit Russia and all the countries strongly linked economically with her, including the „near abroad” countries in the western part of CSI, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The end of the 1990s brought to power Vladimir Putin and the rise of United Russia, a second mandate for Kuchma in Ukraine and the rise of the Communist Party in the Republic of Moldova. In the same period, the Treaty of Amsterdam was signed and ratified, and preparations for enlargement – a ‘big bang’ enlargement to the east of the EU – were on their way. The Councils of Luxembourg (end of 1997) and the Council of Helsinki (end of 1999) paved the way to the accession of twelve new countries – most of them either former soviet republics or former soviet satellites. Year 2000 brought with it yet another event: the beginning of rethinking the bases of the European Union and the project of a convention meant to debate a Constitution for the EU. The large wave of enlargement actually occurred in 2004, and 2007 respectively. Most of these countries became NATO members first, and only afterwards EU members. The proximity