Scholars Crossing Faculty Publications and Presentations Helms School of Government Summer 1997 Moldovia: The Transformation of Post-Soviet Society: Philosophical and Political Considerations Vasile Nedelciuc Scott J. Hammond Stephen R. Bowers Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/gov_fac_pubs Part of the Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, Political Science Commons, and the Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons Recommended Citation Nedelciuc, Vasile; Hammond, Scott J.; and Bowers, Stephen R., "Moldovia: The Transformation of Post- Soviet Society: Philosophical and Political Considerations" (1997). Faculty Publications and Presentations. 66. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/gov_fac_pubs/66 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Helms School of Government at Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Moldovia: The Transformation of Post-Soviet Society 143 ~I:I.Jj}i\Bl\f1JREATY ·.CHARADE: A. Study in Elite Hlusion and Delusion Moldovia: The Transformation of Post-Soviet Society: Philosophical and Political Considerations ii ..... .. ............... ·.·.. ·.·....'W"iIHamT. Lee Vasile Nedelciuc ,I» .•••E........O.1 ...·rn ...••........... er........... C .....••..•.L •...'A ..•. an...... d••.. DIA•..... ............ an ......•... a.·.l.'Vst :,1. 01'.'J Soviet..... and.·. ···u·····S··." m'tSS if e r .. 'ograms .".. ::- "....... ".<: . Deputy, Moldovan Parliament t//(.\ii}\ ..•••..•.•••..•....••.. ......... .<ii.CONTENTS Scott J. Hammond Foreword by William It G h ·;A . ... .. ... Stephen R. Bowers ..· ••.•••••••• ·•••• "#ll1fCoIltt()rrnlllsioris:hcla:~~lii~~~y;;~~~~~mltors; Personalities; •.•.••.•• War If to 1968·r·· , 1· .... < •.......•. ' ... .. .rograms from World James Madison University •• ............ .•••••••• ,nItta Development of the Moscow i\BMS .' . .•. •... .....StageS(jtl'l1\BM J::) veIOIl1ent'ABM.· . .. ... ystem, Illihal 1967~C"<'So; e •.. R ... ' ...... Nuclear Warhead Development. \..nslslp yle;tABM Programs;LacunaeintheRussia ..... : The turbulence of the final years of the former Soviet Union • U.S,ABlvLProgramsIn the 1960sj The SALTERA; S ·'fi .. n Records, .·<.ortthe·Altar of.·MAD'M ...... '. .. , .... acn Icmg U.S. ABM had dramatic consequences for every region of that great colonial •.•••.•.••. ·./.· •.......•.•.···.N·.··A·. ··B··· M' .... OthetFSU.... ..... •.•... ••. ..., St·· t o... denuz.mg ···D .. .Mosco.w ... s.. Defenses',erlllzmg Mod· " empire. The promise of a democratic system modeled not on the . «>(>.;; ca. eglc efenslve· Programs; "Arms Control" Leninist but rather on the Jeffersonian concept of democracy i........ .•...•· ..•. < i .•· •..· .•.•· .•...••.··.l'luclearWat· · ... ·•...§.t.f.lt.e. g.• I.C. 1:l11.II,stlciviIssiIe GOtba h .••.... s;Th d.... h eABM . •...•. .. .'r.reatyan.d .... .. .. Th. e... R ea·I.B' rm k of ·.LPAR'/ ~~v,an. Ie D(!mIseof the Empire; Corroboration of electrified millions of Soviet citizens who accepted the reality of \« ••....•.••.. sj1.sBattleManagement Radars' Dual Pilr . D ., •• .. •... Transfortrtirig."SAM " •..•• ••• R•• · .. ... ..' • .poseesign of the SA-lO; Gorbachev's reforms. The transformation first seen elsewhere in the A··> ....• > .••• 8l"to. eglOnal ABMs;Venfication of "Atms Control" USSR came late to the south-western republic of Moldova and was •·· •.•. F.··.•• sr.t .. e.l11~pts;.:A.BM.... Treaty Violatio. ns; V.iola. tions. of Strategic Off . TIl' 1· not evident until the appointment of Petru Lucinsky as First Secretary ..•.•..•....?f .. c.e •.• ..•...••. A. g..•. •... f.eernt!nt.s; .. ...... Th.eCurre.tlt.U.S.... .•. .... .. .•. .. .Predicament. .., STAR·. n. ,oncC .. USlons.el!SIVe of the Moldovan Communist Party. Hailed as a Moldovan Gor­ ..... "'Th4#haustiver iew otfhe ABM Treatyfta·w ..... ·d· .. most c ......... lli ...•.•.ev > ..... .. ... s an VIolations makes the bachev, Lucinsky arrived too late to satisfy the escalating demands for securi';';Ping:c~eyet fora new approach to arms control and our a democratic transformation of this remote region of the USSR. ..sraegymtlepost~coldwar era '" itis a "must read" fi r <lItRker~./1{ld thosebtterestedinnational security." or po ICY Consequently, in that small nation's first free elections it was the CU1't}'Veldon M.C., Chairmall, House Militaru Res &Devel S b . Popular Front which assumed power and Mircea Snegur, a former . .•. ..?". u COll1l1l1tfee ''Billi ... l .. b .. communist who had joined the Popular Front, became president. ...•.••......... ..·illr()ugh~Il!»lear;oirta~j~ePtio~1 ~hat successfully ill~peded U. S. efforts The Snegur presidency ended with his defeat in the December, idefelidiJgaill.StSiJVietl1ziisiles.;:; o;~. ~S. :e~/l1lOl.oglcal. advantages to 1996 elections and his replacement by the former Communist Party ·.......tlilq()ldWij/... ... ... .. .... .... .. re ,a .J', t IS IIItpedance continues after leader Petru Lucinsky. Spanning half a decade, the Snegur Ai:! •.•.......... ar ecause of tlie West's IIlfamation witli arms control" m .Ilssad~r Henry Cooper Cha' .... n' zr, . administration record offers an excellent picture of the limits of the pirectoriuidClliejUSM'. mnall, .. I}P aontler and fanner SDI . •...> ....>; .ego/lator at the Genepa Defense alld Space Talks democratic transformation not only of Moldova but also of the former Soviet Union itself. In order to gauge the accomplishments as ISBN:()~930690.54"O 166 pages·· May 1997. ·$280·0 Add $9 < .... .'. ,. well as the shortcomings of the transformation of this former Soviet ..-.OO(U.S~)or$2.50 (Foreign) Post and Handling .. MASTERCARIi/VISA ORDERS ACCEPTED republic, it is necessary to consider both Moldovan developments as well as the theoretical parameters that enable us to determine the C()uncilfor Social and Economic Studies existence or absence of democratic government. Therefore, let us first P.O. Box 34070, Washington DC 20043 outline the philosophical foundations of the democratic state. Tel: (202) 371-2700 Fax: (202) 371.1523 Philosophical Basis of Democracy The effort to transform Moldova illustates an ancient drama. This is a drama which recapitulates the timeless struggle between Volume 22 Number 2, Summer 1997 144 v. Nedelciuc. S. C. Hammond and S. R. Bowers Moldovia: The Transformation of Post-Soviet Society 145 Iibe:ty. and power that began with the origins of politics and the under, and those parts of the East that have, as the tentative sailor or begmnmg of organized human associaton. This struggle involves the tightrope walker emerged as survivors (not unscathed), must now first questions of political meaning, both as process and end. The discover other more sure ways to chart those deeper and calmer lessons of the twentieth century demonstrate that this distinction' is channels that put the forces of fear, repression, and universal murder ulti~ately false, for we now know that that no process or method can at a safer distance. Many believe with those in the West that there be dIsassociated from its end, or rather, that no end can be rendered are certain guides that are mandatory to a safe piloting of the as distinct from the moral substance of its means. Substance and political ship, and that the signposts serving as guides are written in procedure - end and means - are inextricably bound, and in those the language of human right. mstances wherein they are treated as somehow both distinct and Moldova's transformation illustrates the practical clash between separ~te, the end is reified in such a way that anything can be the proponents and the opponents ,of this Vie",:. ~h~ de~ocra~ic permItted at the level of the unmediated means. Under such philosophy here is under the leadershIp of the natIon s mtellIgentsIa, delusions, we lose our fear of terror if our higher end is the sort of a group which emerged in 1994 as the Congress of Intellectuals and paradise promised by the USSR's early Bolshevik elites. Peasants. The forces of the old regime, directed by the Agrarians and The collapse of the Soviet Union set in motion this century's their parliamentary allies, continue to resist any philosophy based on great~st transformation of political authority. Consequently, the the notion that human rights should not be qualified by casual questIOn of right and its relationship to ordinary politics is more vital governmental edict. today than it was to us even in 1789. Although the metaphor of Scylla Natural right, and its concomitant concept, natural law, can be and Cha~bdis is often overused to the point of cliche, it is aptly understood as essential to political order for at least three broad employed m describing Europe's precarious, perilous journey between reasons. First, the tradition of natural right is an essential facet of unacceptable ends since the conclusion of the First World War. democratic regimes. Second, human freedom, although invariably and Menaced by the hideous monster of fascism from one side and the vaguely understood and ambiguously established, is brought .into cruel indifference of the abysmal vortex of Stalinism on the other, the tangible practice through the recogni~ion of the principle of ngh.t. good European has had to carefully read the course of the narrow Third the tradition of right is a pnmary element of democratIc current that safely conveys the well piloted