The Market For Ideas

Stephen R. Bowers Kelli M. Nab

On 18 December 2019, Donald Trump, the current President of the United States of America, was impeached by the House Judiciary Committee following allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, the third US President to be... More

Russian Relations with North Korea

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

The changing relationship between Russia and North Korea has its beginnings when the Soviet Union and China became rivals for influence within the Communist world. In the contemporary context, there is a triangle of complicated relations... More

The Market Liberalization of Space Odysseys

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Vlad I. Roșca

Towards the end of 2019, a software issue during launch meant that Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was unable to perform its first mission to supply the International Space Station as intended. It might by counted as merely one of the many problems... More

The Anthropocene-Fallacy: Learning from Wrong Ideas

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Henrique Schneider

The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. While it is not an... More

The Market for Ideas: Supplying and Demanding ThoughtfulnessRuminations that inspired the creation, three years ago, of a wilfully free-speech and free-access, hopefully critical and creative, magazine

No. 21, Jan.-Feb. 2020

Octavian-Dragomir Jora Alexandru Georgescu

It has been three years since our project – The Market for Ideas – took shape. We have tried to present our readers with interesting ideas from a wide variety of fields and penned by a wide variety of others. To the best of our abilities, we have tried not to... More

21st Century Ethics and the New Jus Vitae Necisque?

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

Georgiana Constantin-Parke

In the United States, an important conversation is taking place, the results of which might set a worldwide precedent for the framework of future ethical debates. While European countries have laws which generally ban abortion after the first... More

Nudges – The Paradigm of the Oriented Free ChoiceEconomy Near Us (XXIV)

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

Gabriela Ionescu

Referring to the extremes of economic behavior we can say that they are: a) the imperative norm and b) the absolute autonomy (we refer here to the individual freedom, which does not take into account the free choice of others). Focusing on the... More

ADI DASsler’s “Impossible is Nothing” and “The Miracle of Bern”MIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [III]

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

Alexandru-Costin Udrea

“It’s over! Over! Over! Germany are the World Champions!”, Radio reporter Herbert Zimmermann’s jubilant words still resound in the hearts of many Germans, as a newly-created West Germany conquered the most coveted trophy in international... More

Apple’s Handheld Evolution: From the Newton MessagePad to the iPhoneMIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) [II]

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

Alexandra Ispas Cosmina Stroinea

Ever wonder how some things came to be? Just look at your phone. We cannot even imagine life without it anymore, but it is not always that we think of how much sweat and tears were put into achieving this particular invention. To be more... More

Gazprom as Policy Instrument

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

Stephen R. Bowers

A consistent challenge in international relations is the calculus of national power. Publications such as Military Balance have long made calculations based primarily on military considerations such as the numbers of tracked vehicles, infantry units... More

The Power of Vague Things: A Cautionary Tale

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

Steven Samson

Paul Valery contends that power is founded on belief (a “vague thing”). Harold J. Berman believes the rule of law relies more on moral force than a police force. Yet the modern positivist worldview emphasizes the practical rather than the moral... More

From the Intelligent State to the Responsible OneEconomy Near Us (XXIII)

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

Ahmed Abdulla Saeed Bin Saeed Almatrooshi

The state is not a manager only with regard to the society as a whole. If it was to be like that, a performant computer could have better accomplished whatsoever administrative tasks. The social contract on the basis of which the state is supposed to be... More

From Marxism to the Ideology of Free Society in 1989 Romania – Transition or Rupture?

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

Ștefan-Dominic Georgescu

The turbulent times in which a revolution takes place delegitimize almost any claim to understand in real time what is happening. Only after things have got back on track can a lucid, cold analysis of events be undertaken – in philosophical terms... More

The Year of ToleranceThe UAE on its 48th anniversary

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

My country, the United Arab Emirates, recently celebrated its National Day, marking the celebration of the 48th anniversary of its founding. The UAE strides forward with wisdom and perseverance, under the leadership of the President... More

Corruption as Bad Governance Review of Alina Mungiu-Pipidi’s book – The Quest for Good Governance: How Societies Develop Control of Corruption

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

The issue that has polarized, more than any other, Romanian politics and Romanian society for the last decade and a half is the subject of Alina Mungiu-Pipidi’s book, “The Quest for Good Governance: How Societies Develop Control of... More

Rumble in the Gulf – A Look at the Significance of the Saudi-Yemeni Conflict

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

Higher-order cognition in humans is one of the most commonly cited factors that separate us as a species from other life-forms on earth. It enables us to make sense of the patterns in our environment and the laws that govern nature, to think... More

Innovators from Germany, France, UK and the US Will Attend “Future Summit” on November 28th in Bucharest

No. 20, Nov.-Dec. 2019

The global director of Artificial Intelligence of E-ON, the Innovation Manager from Disneyland Paris, the inventor of the first electric flying taxi awarded in Paris by Emmanuel Macron, the activist planting tens of millions of trees in Africa and 25... More

The Concept of Economic CapillarityEconomy Near Us (XXII)

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

The term capillarity belongs, from a historical point of view, to physics, but it has been taken over, in terms of its general, philosophical significance, both by psychology and sociology, as well as by historical science. From a semantic point of... More

The Autumn School in Philosophy, Economics and Politics 2019. 30 Years Later: Real Liberty or New Serfdom?

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

The Center for Institutional Analysis and Development – Eleutheria (CADI), The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), the Institute for Economic Studies Europe (IES- Europe) and the Society for Individual Freedom (SoLib)... More

Breathing Life into Numbers: Power Asymmetry as Revealed by Nodal Analysis in Professor Cezar Mereuță’s Compendium Triple review from Aurelian Dochia, Octavian-Dragomir Jora and Adrian-Ioan Damoc

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

In his latest book, the esteemed Professor Cezar Mereuță, Ph.D. embarks on a journey that is as ambitious as it is demanding, but also fruitful and rewarding. Writing about Carl Friedrich Gauss’s religious views and opinion of divine revelation... More

On Ownership and Stewardship: Private and Collective Property

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

Ion Nicu Bălășoiu

Property is a complex subject and can be approached from several points of view such as: legal, philosophical, sociological, but especially economic. For each domain, property is of particular importance, which is why the question first... More

Romania’s Anti-Communist Straussianism

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

Octavian-Dragomir Jora Dumitru Miron

The decision of the Bucharest Court of Justice on Friday, September 20th 2019, to uphold the verdict issued in May by the National Council for the Study of the Archives of the “Securitate” (CNSAS) regarding former President Traian Băsescu’s... More

How to Regulate the Financial System in the Digital Age

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

Sorin-Nicolae Curcă

In 1920, after the disaster that followed the First World War, contemplating the period before it, Keynes noted: „The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such... More

The Supreme Unity, the Unity of the Species Reflections about space exploration and the human factor

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu

After exploring continents, seas, and then, with great sacrifice, the air, we wanted to know for sure what lies beyond the Earth’s confines. Mankind’s scientific adventure in outer space and even beyond, in the interplanetary area, is directly connected... More

MIND(s that filled) THE GAP(s) A media campaign of junior reporting on INNOVATIVE / INDUSTRIOUS / INSPIRING, free-market, barrier-breaking, world-spreading, LIBERATING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

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... More

The Case for a Homeopathic Fiscal Policy Economy Near Us (XXI)

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

Cristiana Alexandra Neagoe

Very recently, a certain initiative of the Minister of Public Finance – namely regarding the possibility that tax evasion be punished by prison time – has generated much rumour and pros vs. cons debates (especially among the TV talking heads). Since... More

The Clawback Tax, Sponsor of Government Programs in Romania

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

The budget allocated to healthcare in Romania suffers from “chronic subsidization”. Politicians chose, as a long-term treatment for this issue, a tax that reduces the profits of drug manufacturers to the point of non-existence. These... More

Modern Monetary Theory and Its Poisonous Implications

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

Silviu Cerna

The Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is often mentioned in the latest economic debates, especially in the USA, where it is supported by some (left-wing) candidates of the Democratic Party to the Presidential elections of 2020 and their economic... More

The Curious Case of the Romanian Yield Curve

No. 19, Sep.-Oct. 2019

The single biggest evidence in favour of a recession looming on the horizon, which is on the lips of every single pundit in advanced economies at present, is an atypical relationship between the yields of government bonds of different... More

In Need of Cyber-Education Add Fi to Sci

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Ioana Diacon

Before the Industrial Revolution, education was a luxury few could afford. Currently, you can benefit from education free of charge (if you ignore the “stealth” taxation, as there is no free lunch, and neither does free schooling exist either), but its... More

Playing on High Difficulty: The Trade Barriers of Modern Video Gaming

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Vlad Moraru

Over the course of the last few decades, video games have evolved from being a niche of the entertainment industry to being a major pillar, generating revenues greater than even blockbuster films (Zackariasson & Wilson, 2010)... More

The European Union’s New Strategic Agenda for 2019-2024 and the Economic and Monetary Union Economy Near Us (XX)

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Grațiela-Denisa Iordache

The future of Europe is the major concern of the European institutions, mainly in the context of increasing nationalism and populism around the continent that culminated in Brexit. Long debates and many comments were had, but not so many... More

With Concern, Concerning Pensions Economy Near Us (XIX)

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Georgiana Constantin-Parke

In a well-ordered society (in Rawlsian terminology), every person gains his social place and, consequently, his income (wealth) based on his objective merits – usually based on his work. Unfortunately, beyond a certain age, the physiology... More

The Curse of the ‘Abroad’: A Romanian Perspective

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Samuel Huntington’s observations summarized in the above quote offer valuable insight, mostly regarding the mentality of former empires and great powers. For Romanians, the opposite is true. The ‘abroad’ has always been civilized, while we... More

BNR’s Inflation Bias

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

The National Bank of Romania’s (BNR) recent decision to leave its interest rate unchanged, despite inflation surpassing the 4% threshold, has been justified as a prudent decision in the face of international uncertainties with adverse effect on growth... More

Prospects for Russia’s Energy Market

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Stephen R. Bowers

Both during and after World War Two, analysts recognized the vital role played by energy resources – petroleum, natural gas, and coal – in calculating national power and a nation’s ability to endure an international crisis. Economic development... More

A Short History of Venezuela’s Liberators

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Dario Vărzaru

“The devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulfur still. Yesterday Mr. President of the United States (George W. Bush), whom I call “The Devil”, came here and spoke as if he was the owner of the world…”This was the late President... More

To the Moon and Back

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Alexandru Georgescu

On July 20th 2019, the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first manned mission to touch down and explore the Moon’s surface. At the time, this was generously presented by the Americans as an achievement for all mankind, but it was... More

Ludwig Wittgenstein on Errors Made in Economic Language

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Antonia Antonescu

You may be wondering why a philosopher like Ludwig Wittgenstein is so important in economics. We know how vital the ideas of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Francis Bacon, David Hume, Karl Marx, Keynes, Mises and Samuelson were in the... More

The Frontier of Science Is Expansive and ExpensiveThe Higgs Boson and the humble revelation that in fundamental research the truth is priceless, yet so costly

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Octavian-Dragomir Jora

The CERN physicists announced, around mid-March 2013, that the particle discovered a year before, which they had claimed to be the Higgs boson “with 99% certainty”, had gained another “1% of certainty”. That is it, the verdict is in! The particle which... More

Euro-Phobia, Justified or Not?

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Andreea Dumitrescu

What comes first to mind when you say “European Union”? From the definition of the economic concept to the perception of a zero-average Gaussian variable system, we could introduce the notion of “Brexit”, a probability given by a system that... More

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

No. 18, Jul.-Aug. 2019

Octavian-Dragomir Jora Dumitru Miron

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

IDEAtorial

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

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 I. 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

Georgiana Constantin-Parke

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

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

Octavian-Dragomir Jora

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)

Octavian-Dragomir Jora

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