The Market For Ideas

Octavian-Dragomir Jora Dumitru Miron

The project: students become (co)producers of quality information. The concept aims for a quadruple gap-filler, with students, from all over the world, story-telling, in a non-“homework”, but “freestyle” way, on true entrepreneurship... More

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No Laughing Matter: What the Presidential Elections in Ukraine Have to Teach Us about Politics

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Octavian-Dragomir Jora Mihaela Iacob

When the possibility arose that Ukrainian actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky could run for President of Ukraine and actually win, it might well have elicited a few amused chuckles and raised eyebrows, but it was no longer a laughing... More

Nord Stream 2. Implications for the Eastern Neighborhood

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Leonela Leca

Nord Stream 2, perhaps the most controversial extant gas infrastructure project, not only has divided the European Union in supporters and opponents of the project but is also shaping the transatlantic relation while directly impacting the Eastern... More

Make Education Relevant Again!MIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [I]

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Cătălin Ionel

“The times they are a-changin’” and, along with them, the people’s needs and desires are changing as well. This is reflected in many ways throughout the economy, but perhaps the most interesting example we can ponder are the transformations that... More

The Arctic Maritime Corridor “Ice Ice Baby” on the frozen dance floor

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Mihnea Alexandru Ciocan

In the context of ever-growing concern regarding global climate and the consequences that will impact our society in its entirety, it is worthwhile to approach a topic that may be seen in a positive key – the emergence of a new transport route through... More

Obelix Runs Away from Fiscalix

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

The “fear” of taxation dies hard. In 2013, Gerard Depardieu became a French “tax refugee” in the Russian Federation. Half a decade since then, he became a Russian tax debtor in the Russian Federation. In 2018, he was listed in Russia’s Federal... More

What Kind of Innovation Do We Need?Economy Near Us (XVIII)

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

The morality of capitalism is, without a doubt, based on the value called to have (money, goods, power, social position, and so on) – and to have-to be is intensely debated in social philosophy and in ethics. I will not examine this from an ethical standpoint... More

The Iron Laws of Romanian PoliticsAfter the European elections

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

The 26th of May European elections have produced a mixed picture across the European Union, where Eurosceptic, populist or non-mainstream parties have consolidated their gains in some of the largest Member States (such as France, Italy and... More

Reiwa – Bright New Beginning or Small Step Forward, in Kaizen Style

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

Șerban Georgescu

Spring 2019 came brought with it a new Era in Japan, Reiwa (“beautiful harmony” – the name was inspired from the ancient Japanese collection of poems “Manyoshu”). For the first time in recent history, a Japanese Emperor abdicated. The new... More

Populism.exe in EuropeThe Programless Programmers

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

Narciz Bălășoiu

In recent years, the populist and extremist movements have altered the European Union’s political landscape, cynically capitalizing on a speech based on hate, differences, or any other topic that promised to pay off - regardless of the... More

Who Wins Trade Wars? A Brief Incursion into HistoryEconomy Near Us (XVII)

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

Robert Dobre

Intended to restore the greatness of America (how can we forget Make America great again?), the trade war triggered by the United States against uncomfortable partners such as China on the basis of secular trade deficits and other grievances is... More

The Earthly Algorithms of the Heavenly AffairsSix years ago, “Pope Culture” flashbacks

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

The papal institution opens up the road to redemption for more than 1.200 million Roman-Catholics – that is for the so-called “Western Christianity” –, according to Vatican statistics. Through its doctrine of closeness to God, far and away from any... More

State Role vs. State SizeEconomy Near Us (XVI)

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

Gabriela Ionescu

In modern society, the state remains the central element of political power and an essential factor in the sustainable development of a country. Together with its institutions, the state responds to emerging changes in society by multiplying... More

Sicut in Caelo, Et in TerraThe efforts of Pope Francis to transform the Catholic Church

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

When Pope John Paul II visited Romania in 1999, he achieved a historical landmark as it was the first time the head of the Catholic Church visited a primarily Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054. While his papacy did not... More

Some Thoughts on the Criteria of Nominal Economic Convergence in the EUEconomy Near Us (XV)

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

In connection with the nominal economic convergence criteria, five comments can be made: a) on their completeness; b) on their representativeness; c) on their relevance (meaning); d) on their redundancy (non-synergy); e) on their... More

The Romanian Electoral SpleenA concise political map and chronicle in a spicy year for voters

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

The European and presidential elections to be held this year in Romania will be heralded as a turning point, but despite their importance – particularly for the broader European context, where populist parties might tip the political balance... More

Diaspora Remittances: Major Economic Assets for Nigeria

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

Emmanuel Olusegun Stober

There are millions of people who migrate each year. With the help of family and friends, they cross oceans, rivers, deserts and mountains. They risk their lives to realize a dream, which is to simply have a decent job somewhere that enables them... More

The Road to Sibiu, the Road to WisdomThoughts before the Informal Summit of the European Council, updated and illustrated with a civic selfie at the historical event

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

2018 found Romania celebrating a century of nation-state unity. 2019 finds Romania as the home of the European unity. A freely and firmly committed community of nations is one of the most delicate enterprises of mankind, one that up to now no... More

An Analysis of Basel III: An Accord That Risks Becoming Obsolete Even Before Coming into Force?

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

Florin Luca

The Basel III accord was eagerly anticipated and its adoption had a significant positive effect on the banking stocks in late 2017. Of course, there were other considerations behind the positive sentiment, such as the progress recorded by the Brexit... More

The Steering Wheel with Free WillTraditional cars versus autonomous vehicles

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

Ana-Maria Marinoiu

“The advent of AVs on the busy roadways of the world’s nations represents a sea change in the way human transportation is conceived and enacted. We are now witnessing an epoch of significant transition in which active control of the vehicle... More

In Memory of Romania’s Last King: His Royal Majesty Michael I (1921-2017)

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

The life of King Michael I (Mihai I, for Romanians) embodies almost perfectly the tormented and tragic destiny of Romania, his country, in the 20th century. His quiet and reserved personality, almost a monument to stoicism, was testimony to a man... More

Universal Basic Income – A Challenge for Social and Economic PoliciesEconomy Near Us (XIV)

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

Monica-Florica Dutcaș

The purpose of this article is to draw the reader's attention, perhaps even initiate a debate on the Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a policy instrument for economic and social policies. It is not a comprehensive scientific study of all current... More

The Passions of France And the fire of Notre-Dame

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

Monday, April 15th 2019, was the third day of the Holy Week for Catholic Christians, the week that commemorates the Passion of Jesus Christ preceding His crucifixion and resurrection. The day followed another weekend of protests in France, when... More

Should the State Adjust the Market? The Case of ROBOREconomy Near Us (XIII)

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

The duel between state and market is an old story in the debates regarding the best way to run society. Of course, there are both extremists and moderates in this debate. I am not interested in covering the large array of opinions, but in exploring the... More

Karl Marx and Switzerland

No. 17, May-Jun. 2019

Henrique Schneider

“The key to the intricate and massive system of thought created by Karl Marx (1818-83) is at bottom simple: Karl Marx was a communist”.Rothbard (1995, 317) succinctly makes a crucial point for understanding Marx: His ideas are not primarily about... More

Mihail Manoilescu – Beyond Taboos and ClichésReassessing a legacy in economic theory and policy

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

Outside Brazil and Romania, Mihail Manoilescu is essentially a forgotten economist, and, even in the latter, when his name is mentioned he is generally taught as a trade or protectionist theorist, although he is a development, growth, trade... More

Future Tense in the Job MarketAnd some featuring tensions

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

Mihnea Alexandru Ciocan

Lately, in the community of futurists and the subgroup of Economics scholars / freaks, a theory or, better yet, a slogan has emerged, in support of the idea of the acceleration of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), based on... More

Has Facebook Really Incorporated Us?Globalization: Like, Follow, Share

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

Being a social network, Facebook is about protecting privacy with one hand and pledging for publicity with the other. With over two billion users, Facebook scales up (or down) the challenges of every human community (or those of the human species... More

Ruling over Central Banking…domsThe (mir)age of independence

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

The independence of the central banks – mysterious or miraculous entities in the eyes of masses – is practically an inexhaustible topic for scholars-economists and political scientists, as well as for business-persons and policy... More

The World of RomaniaWorks that made this planet a better place – Part II –

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

They strove to avoid being overly-parochial or nationalistic. The collection is neither exhaustive nor hierarchical, while the selection has no algorithm whatsoever behind it and no other rationale for the choices than every author-student’s... More

The World of RomaniaWorks that made this planet a better place – Part I –

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

The Market for Ideas and the students from the class of 2018 of the “International Economic Diplomacy” Master’s Program, from the Faculty of International Business and Economics, of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania... More

A New Way of Solidarity within NATO How it was decided at the NATO Summit in Brussels, one year ago, to adapt the Alliance to a new world. And what Romania should do

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

Florin Luca

The NATO Summit that took place in Brussels on the 11th and 12th of July 2018 – almost one year before its recently celebrated 70th anniversary – was the Euro-Atlantic event that fueled great passion from the mass-media and the general public... More

Blood Is Thicker than Oil: The Throes of Venezuela’s Crisis

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

As the smoking gun of Venezuela’s unrest clears away, onlookers wonder whether it is about to be holstered back or cocked for another shot. To most observers, the socio-political crisis in Venezuela came as a big surprise, as if out of... More

The Reference Social Indicator – Between Necessity and Moral Obligation Economy Near Us (XII)

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

Gabriela Ionescu

The Reference Social Indicator (RSI) comes to our attention after a ten-year period in which its value has not changed. The lack of political stability and, sometimes, the irresponsibility of governing parties creates the risk of deviating the value of RSI... More

The Return of MicroeconomicsThe international edition of Professor Cezar Mereuta’s paramount work

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

Alexandru Georgescu

The recent launch of the English version of the seminal study “Some Microeconomic Landmarks of the Transition Process in Romania” by Prof. Cezar Mereuță is an important step in the process of exposing the notable work of Romanian... More

A Single European Tax?Economy Near Us (XI)

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

The European budget is the main financial tool by which the process of economic integration and convergence is driven within the European Union. In the European construction, we can identify four tools aimed at initiating, conducting, and... More

INFatuated, INFuriated, INFlexible? Reshuffling the nuclear world order

No. 16, Mar.-Apr. 2019

Narciz Bălășoiu

What the international press and analysts from every corner of the world have speculated on for more than a year has happened. The White House has announced that the US is withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces... More

Commercial Reflections for a Centennial Romania: Trading Abroad Adds to the Prosperity of a Nation, Albeit National Prosperity Shall Never Be Tradable

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

Dumitru Miron

In the history of a nation, its commercial relations with neighbouring countries or with those over the seas matter a great deal. Someone once said that, across centuries, the most common ways of interrelating between people were war... More

Simion Mehedinti and the Romanian Geopolitics

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

We have the privilege and pleasure of inviting the Romanian readers of The Market for Ideas, Saturday, February 23, 2019, 13:30, at Romexpo, Pavilion B2, Stand 261, to a brief meeting with the name of the visionary geographer and geo-political... More

Mihail Manoilescu: “Protectionism 2.0” – The (New) Name of the (Old) Game in Postwar Developmentalism

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

Larissa Back

Mihail Manoilescu, more than an engineer, journalist or professor, was a Romanian political and economic thinker. Although in his country he was not recognized and his theory used, he has inspired other countries in different regions... More

Drifting Away In the “middle” of “extremism”

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

Vlad Roșca

Summers in Germany are usually temperate. The humid winds from the West and from the North keep temperatures at a decent average, letting people enjoy sunny, but not torrid days, while also safeguarding some vital sales of the traditional beer... More

How Migration Saved the White City

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

Teodora Marković

Few parts of the world can boast of a history as turbulent as that of the Balkan peninsula. Never quite East, nor quite West, it has been at the crossroads of different cultural and political influences throughout the centuries. One of the places... More

The Structural Incompleteness of EconomicsRebuilding Economics

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

As I understand it, in the economic discipline there are two major paradigms in the sense that Thomas Kuhn employed the word, to mean modes of thought: a) the neoclassical paradigm (the still current mainstream); b) the behavioural paradigm... More

The Impact of Russia’s Strategic Interest in the Black Sea Region on the Imbalance of the Russian Economy

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

Leonela Leca

March 6th, 2009, Geneva. In an attempt to boost the diplomacy between the two nations, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Minister Sergei Lavrov with a red button with the English word “reset” mis-translated into a Russian... More

New Developmentalism, Old Ideas

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

Marian-Andrei Done Ștefania-Mirela Podocea

The so-called anti-austerity backlash in Romania, led by the now defunct unnatural alliance between the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) of eight years ago, has kept the Romanian public on the edge and can even... More

A Social Space in Facebook Times The biased management of issues

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

The Facebook personal profile, even if it is accessible to a small number of people, is a public space, not a private one. Social networks have become a central part of everyday life. Facebook is the most used social network, likely the second site that... More

Smaranda Brăescu: The Girl with Her Head in the Clouds

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

Raluca Șancariuc

In the early 1900s, modern aviation was still in its infancy. It was an era when iconic inventions and discoveries in terms of flying machines were only starting to see the light of day. The first pilot licence obtained in Romania was issued in 1911, after the... More

Human Action. The Foundation of Society

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

Savian Boroancă

Over time, numerous socialist utopians have sought the perfect society. Some had colossal plans and some claimed good intentions, but when social conditions would not meet their hopes and dreams, they blamed moral precariousness... More

Super Bowl and a Soup Bowl

No. 15, Ian.-Feb. 2019

Football is a community distilled product (“You’ll never walk alone” goes the Liverpool F.C. anthem, adopted, against all odds - in the Beatles city, from a Pink Floyd show tune). Football unevenly blends feelings brewed by a collective order... More

IDEAtorial

Cyber-Cerberus and Hackers’ Hades How to make home(land)s cyber-safer places

Octavian-Dragomir Jora Dumitru Miron

The creation of cyberspace may be perceived either as a benign addendum to the biblical Book of Genesis or as man’s fatal conceit making a virtual world mimicking the inherited one. Is it a smarter cover for the physical world – with its old-days and more predictable social life, economic cooperation, and power politics – or a digital hallucination – leaving us disturbed? The godfather of cyberspace is considered William Gibson. He invented the word, using it in his SciFi Burning Chrome story and Neuromancer novel. You do not have to be full-time scientific-fantasist to get the side effects of an avatar-world. An avatar-world will accordingly develop goods and bads that will transcend it and trespass it. Its goods will enhance the source realms, its bads will strike back in it, as happened in the world of www, Facebook, Wikileaks and US presidential campaign interfered by maleficent descendants of the “dark-side” soviets. More

On the Nature of the Concept of Tolerance Essay on three conferences delivered by Andrei Plesu, Mircea Dumitru and Horia-Roman Patapievici

I would like to discuss the following issues related to the concept of tolerance (the concept of intolerance can be derived, relatively un-problematically, from that of tolerance): the nature (source) of the concept of tolerance. More

The Future of Economics Is Human

Nicoleta Stoianovici

Private actors have long embraced behavioral economics as a way to boost sales and profits yet, until recently, the line of study had not been endowed with a front row seat in the hall of economic policy development. This year’s recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (called the Nobel Prize for Economics), Richard H. Thaler, increases the proportion of behavioral economists upon whom the prestigious award has been bestowed to 6%. His work offers a glimpse into a particular type of libertarianism: coined as “libertarian paternalism” by this year’s Nobel Prize recipient and the co-author of his bestselling book “Nudge”, Cass Sunstein, the pair argues for guiding people in their choices under specific conditions. Libertarian paternalism would prevent losses resulting from neglecting to act upon lucrative propositions such as signing up for a savings plan where the employer matches one’s contribution up to a certain percent of one’s income and reasons in favor of providing as default options for policy implementation the best alternative for the individual or society as a whole (such as automatic enrollment in said savings program) in order to assist fallible or inexperienced individuals with key decisions. Thaler tries to match the two seemingly conflicting interests of the individual and the group (to him, choices need not be a zero-sum game) by minimizing the cost of externalities through defaults that are beneficial to one party while interfering minimally with respect to the other (a widespread example is that of favoring opt-out policies rather than opt-in, on the one hand to increase the number of participants and, on the other, to bank on people’s inertia). More

In Pursuit of the West

Vlad Roșca

There is a ceaseless notion going on about the rearwardness of Eastern European states and their inability to build lastingness. Ideas uninterruptedly flow about a retrograde existence that keeps the East away from competing with the West; that the hiatus seems to enlarge day after day. Alignment with the West is one of the biggest endeavours of the East. Many efforts are put into an attempt of modernization which gives the impression of being beyond comprehension and realization. Arraying in the same clothes as the big brother looks to have become a mantra of the East, with an ubiquitous hope of a finest hour that will come when differences will no longer exist. Odd enough, the East sets its hopes in an ideal it has never managed to obtain for centuries, but which is now seen as an end goal. More

Man, Mansion, and Motion (II) A Forward History of Homesteading and Horsepowering

Alexandru Rîpa

The last argument concluded by leaving an open door to the second facet of our topic: the duality of transport/mobility & house/stability. We set up the context of our discussion based on the relationship between action and movement, which has applicability in the analysed duality. We argued how the action axiom is the spine of the above dualism and we performed afterwards a short review of the history of transport from its roots to its forthcoming developments. Having taken care of transport, we will discuss in this article how humans acted with regard to the concept of homesteading. More

BUSINESSance

Romania’s “Sonderweg” to Illiberal Democracy

In German historiography, there is a current of thought dating to the 19th century regarding a “special path” (Sonderweg) of political development in Germany or German settled areas. Its first incarnation was a positive one, underlying the German aptitude for social reform and development in the absence of dangerous pressures. After WW2, it became a way of explaining the rise of Nazism and retconning it as inevitable, thus making the leap from theory to tool for self-blame. This article argues that Romania is undergoing its own Sonderweg to illiberalism, based on local specificities of a political and structural nature. More

BUSINESSance

“Unplugged Skills”: The Need to Live beyond Technology’s Limitations

Georgiana Constantin

It would seem as if there is an electrical outlet for everything from one’s toothbrush to their car now. Society is in continuous technological progress. Advances in scientific and technical knowledge have extended and improved our lives. Most of us live in comfort only afforded to kings a few centuries ago and with capabilities they could not have imagined. And with all the new technology come new skill sets, new job prospects, and exciting opportunities. We now have the freedom to work from home or from anywhere in the world, as long as we have a computer and a good internet connection. We can run a business online. We can shop online. We can keep in touch with people from thousands of miles away and deliver messages that reach them in seconds. Everything seems to herald in an exciting future. More

UNI(di)VERSITY

Models of Globalization The first four meetings of the Interdisciplinary Scientific Seminar “Octav Onicescu”

Alexandru A. Popovici

By the end of June 2017, when the seminar on “Marxist mathematical economics” was wrapping up, I announced a plan to organize a scientific seminar on “Models of globalization”, and I expoused its basic themes. It extends the economic study from the national to the supranational (of international organizations) and global levels, as was the obvious progression of inquiries. In September, after consulting with potential participants and especially professor Emil Dinga (director of the Seminary “N. Georgescu-Roegen”, of Logic and Methodology of Economics), a plan of organization and a list of reviewers and reports were established. Hence, on the 28^th of September 2017, I was able to publish online the purpose, the organization and the program of the seminar, which was described as “interdisciplinary”. Latter on, under the approval of the participants, it was named “Octav Onicescu”, because he was an important promoter of interdisciplinary studies and the seminar was housed by the Institute for Mathematical Statistics and Applied Mathematics, of the Romanian Academy, which bears his name. I also managed for the seminars (together the discussions) to be recorded and published on youtube,com and to be broadcast live, through Skype. More

ecON/OFFice

A Romanian Perspective on the Three Seas Initiative

Liviu Mureșan Alexandru Georgescu

The Three Seas Initiative is a recent formula describing an older concept. Romania is a reflexive supporter of regional cooperation initiatives, but it is paying special attention to this initiative, as it encompasses a geopolitically significant area with relevance to long-term Romanian interests. This paper argues that this valuable initiative has a latent geopolitical subtext with regards to the two powers flanking the region which is perceived as such, if not commonly articulated, by the countries of the initiative. At the same time, the Black Sea will be a main deciding factor for the success and failure of the Initiatives, owing to several underlying conditions, as well as potential complicating factors. Any sort of Three Seas Initiative development will have to keep this in mind or else risk a concentration of vulnerabilities in the middle portion of the Initiative’s geographical space. The Three Seas Initiative must also be regarded from the perspective of synergies with Chinese initiatives, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the 16+1 cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries. More

Pandora’s Botnet How the cyber visionaries are sticking us with the bill

Alexandru Georgescu

Cybersecurity is mentioned so often that it has become a cliché like climate change, with the other thing they have in common being a disagreement on what solutions are required, who is responsible for them and whether there is a responsibility in changing behaviour so as to minimize these risks. All of these difficult questions are left unanswered not just by the conceptual breadth and diversity of the issue at hand, but also by the ease with which dilettantes and people with agendas can spot facile solutions that obviate the need for difficult questions and answers. More

PrestiDigital GeoPolitics Web Spatiality and Territoriality

We, humans, live and act in the old physical space, though spatiality will never be the same after digits became the atoms of some “virtual matter”, in which our bodies and souls e-immersed. Cyberspace, equated reasonably with the Internet, allows for larger and better markets and fortunes, as well as more and fierce dangers to our security and liberty, to our homes and homelands. More

The Grand (Binary) Chessboard: Security, Geopolitics and Geoeconomics in the Cyber-era

For each age that we think to define, there are words that describe the aspects or characteristics that are thought to define it best. The mid-twentieth century was known as the ‘Atomic Age’, when the results of research into nuclear physics were brought to the forefront with the detonation of nuclear bombs. Shortly thereafter, it was succeeded by the Space Age, with the drive to explore outer space and the competition between the world’s superpowers to develop technology to that end. Somewhere from the 1970s, the Information Age is believed to have begun, sprung by the Digital Revolution, with information technology playing an increasingly greater role in human affairs on an ever-growing number of levels: the economy, society, culture, language and politics. Thus, geographic distance became less and less relevant in defining human interaction, and physical contact was no longer an imperative for relations between people. More

Essentials of Military Cyber Security Strategies

Bilge Karabacak

There are considerable, even astonishing, differences between the old and new versions of Department of Defense (DoD) cyber strategies. There is a four-year period between the two strategies and the new version explicitly states that the United States may take offensive actions against its persistent adversaries in cyber space. In this article, the major changes in the new strategy are shared with the reader. Secondly, cyber-attacks against the assets of the US in a four-year period have been summarized. Probably, these persistent attacks may be the primary reason for the offensive nature of the new strategy. This article also shares the essentials of a military cyber security strategy, which are in parallel with the evolution of the DoD cyber strategy. More

Cyber Conflict and International Law

Metodi Hadji Janev

This article provides a brief overview of the international principles and standards applicable to cyber conflict. The main assumption is that globalization and technological development have changed the international order. These changes affect the nation states and principles and standards established to regulate their relations. The existing international law has limited applicability to regulate potential cyber conflict. Therefore, the International Community must take further steps to prevent these challenges. More

Cyber Diplomacy – Addressing the Gap in Strategic Cyber Policy

Carmen Elena Cîrnu

Although it is a new topic, cyber-diplomacy has already advanced in leaps and bounds worldwide in an attempt to define and to summarize the efforts constantly made to solve a new type of conflict, namely those taking place in cyberspace. The primary role of diplomacy is to generate common advantage through dialogue, thus the primary role of cyber diplomacy would be to generate advantage through dialogue on cyber security issues. More concrete, a simple assumption would be that cyber diplomacy uses diplomatic tools to solve the problems that emerge in cyberspace. Topics like internet governance, enforcement of law against cyber crime, response to malicious attacks arising in cyberspace, the protection of critical infrastructure, just to mention a few, are of utmost importance and require a dedicated agenda and concrete action. The last decade has seen emerging technologies impact national economic systems in virtual space. This has changed the diplomatic agenda, with cyber threats moving to the top and with many governments already acknowledging that ignoring cyber diplomacy is no longer an option for global dynamics. Both a confusion in terminology and a lack of common legislation when addressing the cyber diplomacy topic is observed, since beyond internet governance and cyber security, a range of topics, from military use of internet to economic growth, are also enclosed by cyber diplomacy. More

Terrorist Influence on Children in Cyberspace

Katarina Jonev

Terrorist groups are using cyberspace to propagandize ideological, political and religious concepts, for mutual communication and organization of activities, for planning attacks in the real world and for financing. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegrams have contributed to radicalization and recruitment, primarily of children and young people who accept the principles of terrorists and join their ranks. Modern ways of communication have enabled terrorists to successfully increase membership and their ranks without direct, physical contact. More

Terrorism Has No Echo without the Media

Valentina Nica

Terrorism can be seen as an act of communication. In order to transform an attack into a message, the media’s dissemination capabilities are needed, being a vital pawn in the game the terrorists are playing. Sending the perfect message in the way the terrorist desire is much more important that the act itself. The challenge in the relationship stated is the conflict of interests between the media having to broadcast unbiased information about the event, the social responsibility they carry and the prospect of giving sensational news that may alter the reality in order to have a wider audience. More

What Is Blockchain? An introduction for laymen

Radu Judele

During the age of the crusades, several knightly orders were formed out of international groups of feudal knights to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land. In the interludes between the various wars, the number of pilgrims would grow, seeking salvation and other personal benefits, such as the prestige of having performed the pilgrimage. The Templars were one of the groups approached by these medieval tourists and were asked for protection on the long road against robbers. The trend continued and there was a growing need for protection. Since the Templar Order had a limited number of members, they became overwhelmed and they came up with a solution. More

Building the Future, One Blockchain at a Time

Adrian Victor Vevera

The European Center for Excellence in Blockchain (ECEB) was founded in Bucharest in 2017 by the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI), the Idea Factory Think Tank and Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Virginia, USA) as a as a promoter of the Blockchain issue and its link with the protection of Critical Infrastructures for state institutions and for the private sector (i.e. finance, energy, etc.), both nationally and internationally. It seeks to foster an understanding of blockchain issues on the part of decision makers and to encourage the development of key applications for use in governance, such as that of critical infrastructures. It will cooperate with both public authorities and private actors to facilitate a sustainable exploitation of blockchain potential. More

BOOKracy

Development Exposed Ian Goldin, The Pursuit of Development. Economic Growth, Social Change, and Ideas

Elena Tălmăcian

Ian Goldin’s book entitled The Pursuit of Development. Economic Growth, Social Change, and Ideas was originally published in English in 2016 by Oxford University Press and was translated in Romanian (În căutarea dezvoltării: creșterea economică, schimbările sociale și ideile) in 2017 by Comunicare.ro Publishing House (introduction: Paul Dobrescu; translation from English: Viorela Dima-coordinator, Raluca-Elena Hurduzeu and Elena Tălmăcian). More

CasusBelleARTE

Hyperborean Folklore – The Art of Symbols & Numbers

The Art Gallery “Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck” at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies hosted the artistic photography exposition named “Hyperborean Folklore – The Art of Symbols & Numbers” which has the main theme of the reinterpretation of the ancestral and cultural symbolism found in the manufacturing of the national authentic Romanian dress, in a contemporary manner of fashion that brings to the present the artistic dowry that artists inherited from their Romanian origin. More

TheFILEstarters

A Community in Search of Unity, a Union in Search of Communion

The Faculty of International Business and Economics, from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, hosted on 16th-17th November 2017 the 8th edition of The Future of Europe International Conference, with the participation of distinguished speakers and generous auditorium from Academia, public administration, and business environment. More

KNOWlegacy

For a Privatization of Environmental Public Policies (Towards an intellectual climate change on sustainable development)

Climate change and sustainable development are, somehow, like “love and marriage”, and they go together like “a horse and carriage”; and if you ask “the local [as well as global] gentry”, they will say that this is “elementary”. But despite a basic consensus, that something is happening to our earthly environment and something must rapidly be done, the problem is much more delicate scientifically and politically. More

ecON/OFFice

Orient and Occident – Perceptual and Complementary Macro-Regions

Viorel Mionel

The Occident (The West) is a term that is borrowed from Latin (occidens) and translates as "sunset". From an etymological and semantic point of view, it refers to features of a geographic nature. The sunset, seen from the perspective of a fix point, means the west. Anyone at any point in the world can see that the sun always rises from the east and sets in the west. It follows that the West is located somewhere, where the sun sets. Examples of names that include terms such as occident and occidental (the West and western) are numerous, both in the western and eastern hemispheres: the Western Sahara or Occidental Sahara (the West African geographical region administered by Morocco), the Western Carpathians (Carpaţii Occidentali in Romanian; a Western Carpathian subdivision), Occidental Grand Erg (the area covered with sand dunes in the West of the Sahara desert), the Sierra Madre Occidental (mountains in western part of Mexico) or Negros Occidental (an administrative sub-region located in the western part of the Negros Island of the Philippines). More

Defence and Security: The UK and Romania after Brexit

Adam Sambrook

We live in a better world than our parents or grandparents did. Romania’s GDP is a remarkable five times higher that it was at the turn of this millennium. More countries, like Romania, are more open, democratic and stable than they were a couple of generations ago. We are more tolerant, with more rights for religious, ethnic and sexual minorities. We have access to technologies that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. And even if we look outside the developed world, there is good news. In 1990, 1.9 billion human beings lived in extreme poverty. That number had, despite population growth, been cut in half by 2010. In 25 years, global mortality rate for children under 5 years of age declined by more than half. Many fewer people are contracting HIV/AIDS and more are living with it. More

À la recherche de l’identité perdue

In most contexts, the name Catalonia is typically associated with the world of culture, arts, architecture and sports. It evokes the splendour of the Sagrada Familia, the distinctive styles of Antoni Gaudi and Salvador Dali, the venerable Montserrat Caballé and, of course, the famous Barcelona FC. Yet, in the aftermath of the declaration of independence passed by the Autonomous Community’s Parliament on October 27, 2017, the name is now also associated with the increasingly prominent trend towards fragmentation that has defined socio-political dynamics in the Western world in recent years, in particular Europe. More

The 2017 Austrian Elections A hint on the gap between contemporary Austrian politics and Austrian economics heritage

Barbara Kolm

Since October 2006, Austria has been governed by a “big coalition” between the two major parties, the Conservative People’s Party ÖVP and the Social Democratic Party SPÖ. Years which, in the eyes of most, have been dominated by intergovernmental conflict and bipartisan obstruction. More

The Ebb of German-Turkish Relations

Heydar Mirza

The political crisis in the relations between Germany and Turkey deepens as the tensions grow and bellicose statements and mutual accusations envelop more dimensions of the bilateral agenda. Millions of Turks are living and working in Germany, Germans, in their turn, traditionally make up to around fifteen percent of the country’s tourism arrivals. The bilateral trade volume is around 37 billion U.S. dollars p.a.. Relations between Germany and Turkey have always been subject to serious and long-term synergies. Both sides have much to lose, but this, however, is not a dampener on hostile rhetoric. More

ToBeContinued

The Saudi Shake-up