ROMANIA’S EURO-ATLANTIC SECURITY PROFILE POST-COLD WAR: TRANSITIONAL SECURITY HABITUS AND THE PRAXIS OF ROMANIA’S SECURITY FIELD By Raluca Csernatoni Submitted to Central European University Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Dr Michael Merlingen CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2014 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis contains no materials accepted for any other degrees, in any other institutions. The thesis contains no materials previously written and/or published by any other person, except where appropriate acknowledgement is made in the form of bibliographical reference. Raluca Csernatoni September 19th, 2014 CEU eTD Collection i ABSTRACT This research outlines the willingness of an under-researched, formerly communist, and Atlanticist state, i.e. Romania, to support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s and the European Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy mechanisms of governance and to implement common security and defence policies. The driving question that inspires the research is the motivation of Romania to participate in, to contribute to, and to further cultivate the Euro-Atlantic partnership in light of its challenging security sector transformation post-Cold War. In the case of a newer EU member state such as Romania, the newly emerged national strategic culture practices and articulations need to be teased out so as to analyse the specific security profile of the country. The cases of Hungary and Poland are put forward so as to compare and contrast with the Romanian case the levels of adaptation and change in their national security strategy, under the influence of NATO and the CSDP during their post-Cold War transition. Romania has seen the two international influences of NATO and the CSDP as complementary frameworks for enhanced national contribution to the Euro-Atlantic common security and defence. NATO has played the fundamental role of mentorship CEU eTD Collection during Romania’s security sector reform, during and preceding and also continuing after its integration process in the Alliance. These security reforms have also been mirrored by the country’s involvement in the EU’s Common Security and Defence ii Policy (CSDP), Romania using the CSDP framework to develop civilian capabilities and to participate in civilian-military operations. The research goal is to map out the evolution and the inherent tensions triggered by the transformation of security professionals’ habituses from the outdated Cold-War representations to more modern understandings of security production and international projection under the joint tutorship of NATO and the CSDP. The research gives valuable insights of Romania’s security policy change by focusing on the processes of domestic transformation, resistance and professionalization in the field of security and defence. In doing so, the thesis reconstructs Romania security profile from the perspective of Romanian security practitioners’ habituses as revealed in interviews and it traces their levels of involvement in shaping the country’s national attitude towards the Euro- Atlantic partnership. The research reveals that there have been tensions and hysteresis effects in such practitioners’ normative attitudes as regards the processes of professionalization and change in the post-Cold War Romanian security field. The thesis operates under the proposition that in a transitional security context, when formal structures and rationalizations of strategic action are under construction or in question, security practitioners rely on a practical substrate to guide their actions. The CEU eTD Collection present research advances to cross-cut the practice-oriented scholarship of Pierre Bourdieu with the broader debates on Europeanization and strategic culture, but it also moves beyond Bourdieu’s conceptual understanding of the habitus. iii The research proposes the original concept of the transitional security habitus to best describe the fluid character of the Romanian security habitus and the constantly fluctuating security practices during transitional stages under multiple security policy reforms. The transitional security habitus best captures the idiosyncratic character of post-communist Romania’s security policy transition – adaptation to change and adjustments in the security habitus become ingrained habitual dispositions, embodied by security actors as social “survival” tools; it reflects the struggles encountered by security practitioners during changing security context, fluid security practices, and international professionalization prerequisites. CEU eTD Collection iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Michael Merlingen, for the great intellectual and personal support offered during the dissertation project and during my Masters and PhD Studies. His outstanding supervision, constructive criticism, and patience were fundamental elements in the completion of my dissertation. I would like to thank him for the energy and effort dedicated during the writing of my thesis, and in particular for the assistance given during the last stages of the dissertation project. During my PhD research, I have always received valuable advice and assistance concerning my PhD project and my other academic activities from the members of the Department of International Relations and European Studies at CEU. I am extremely grateful to the two readers in my PhD Panel, Dr Xymena Kurowska and Dr Paul Roe for their insightful and constructive feedback. I would like to especially thank Dr Xymena Kurowska for providing valuable guidance during my dissertation and for giving me the opportunity to publish a chapter based on my dissertation in her edited volume, Xymena Kurowska and Fabian Breuer (eds.) Explaining the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. Theory in action, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. I owe special thanks to the course of “Contemporary Social Theory”, offered by Dr Alexandra Kowalski at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology (CEU), where I was witness to eye-opening discussions and received important conceptual observations for my theoretical chapter. During my PhD studies I benefitted from two great research experiences: as a Research Fellow at the Institute for European Politics (IEP) in Berlin and as an Erasmus Mobility Grant receiver at the Free University of Brussels (ULB). By both spending time in a policy think tank and in a different academic institution, I had the chance to receive feedback and constructive criticism for my PhD research. In Brussels, I was able to consult with several Professors from ULB and the Institute of European Studies regarding my PhD project. I am also very grateful to the International Security Information Service – Europe in Brussels, where I have been given the opportunity to apply my research skills and academic knowledge with full intellectual freedom as a research officer, working on EU and NATO related security and defence policy developments. Even though they will remain anonymous in the PhD thesis, I would also like to express my gratitude to the interviewees that contributed with their time and CEU eTD Collection knowledge and offered insightful comments during the interviewing process. I am also grateful for the administrative assistance and financial support received by the Central and European University. My studies with the Department of International Relations and European Studies have marked the greatest and best part of my academic formative years and I will always remember them with fondness. v I would like to thank my partner for life and best friend, Mihai Barbat, for his wonderful support during the toughest times in my life, for his patience, unconditional love, and his continued faith in me during all these years. I would like to show gratitude to my father, Ioan Csernatoni, for believing in me and for his love. This PhD dissertation is dedicated wholeheartedly to the memory of my mother, Carmen Csernatoni. Without her I would not have become the person that I am today. CEU eTD Collection vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................ii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................................... ix List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................ ix List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................. x Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Research Methods and Methodological Insights for the Study of Security Practices ...................... 14 CHAPTER 1 Literature Review – Security Practice between Strategic Culture and Europeanization Literatures ............................................................................................................................................. 23 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 23 1.2 Strategic