Constructing Romania’s foreign policy and security role in its eastern neighbourhood: the cases of Moldova and Ukraine

Abstract

ABSTRACT Acknowledging the changes that have occurred over the past years in the geopolitical milieu of Eastern Europe, this paper looks at how Romania frames its foreign policy and security role towards its eastern neighbours, as reflected in the country’s official discourse. This study shows how Romania’s external behaviour has been impacted at the discursive level by membership in NATO and the EU. While it finds that a congruence between public discourse and external actions generally exits in the case of Moldova, this is only partial in relation to Ukraine. The paper employs discourse and content analyses to identify the main narratives employed by Romania vis-à-vis the two eastern neighbours over a ten-year timeframe, 2009–2019, and examines whether the country’s official discourse has been followed by concrete foreign policy actions.