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The Three Seas Initiative: A Key for Enhancing Connectivity in Central Europe to Make EU More Resilient and Cohesive
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) is an original regional cooperation format among thirteen EU member states of Central Europe. The 3SI focuses on improving connectivity between the north and south of the eastern part of the EU, mainly through developing transport, energy, and digital infrastructure. It also aims at strengthening the resilience of the region by ensuring secure supply chains and by developing better access to regional ports and connections with eastern neighbours of the EU. So far, the geographic and infrastructural conditions have hampered the unleashing of the full potential of the region to strengthen the EU economy and innovativeness. There are 4 strategic partners to the 3SI: the European Commission, the USA and Germany, Japan. Two states have the status of associated participating states to the 3SI: Ukraine and Moldova.Central Europe has been developing dynamically in recent decades. To maintain the pace of development toward a highly innovative, interconnected, and resilient region, much more focus should be placed on regional cooperation. Thus, the aim of the conference was to present the 3SI concept of overcoming the indicated challenges and strengthening the EU. The conference brought together participants from different areas: politicians, scholars, experts, journalists and diplomats to discuss the results and prospects of the 3SI. This conference presented research findings of scholars and experts on the 3SI, adding our knowledge of regional cooperation and discuss its current status and serving to popularize scientific knowledge on regional cooperation. The main questions revolve around the up-to-date results of 3SI cooperation and its prospects. More
The Excessive Deficit of Romania – Context and Possible Sanctions
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 The excessive deficit procedure is a major factor in fighting the fiscal deficit for Romania, which is expected to rise to approx. 7% of GDP this year. Due to COVID-19, the EU suspended its budgetary rules for all Member States between 2020 and 2023 by activating the general escape clause. As of 2024, the general escape clause is no longer in effect. The EU has therefore relaunched the deficit-based EDP process under the new rules of the revised economic governance framework. More
Framing the American Commonwealth
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 Historically, American political and religious liberty can neither be divorced from each other nor be understood apart from the struggle between church and state that wracked early modern Europe. The American constitutional tradition of liberty and self-government is rooted in the biblical concept of the covenant. Sixteenth century Reformers used biblical and historical models to carefully develop the idea of covenanted self-government into a pillar of the ecclesiastical and political order, thus giving rise to covenant (or federal) theology and the idea of political federalism. What follows is a lightly edited excerpt from this writer’s Crossed Swords: Entanglements Between Church and State in America (1984), chapter 5, “The American Commonwealth.” It is a sequel to “Engines of Liberty: American Experiments in Self-Government,” The Market for Ideas, 25 (Sept.-Oct. 2020). More
Tim vs Jim: The Vice Presidential Debate Was the Revelation of the Election Season
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 On October 1st 2024, the debate between the vice-presidential candidates in the US election campaign took place. The event is important as part of the American democratic ritual that legitimizes the process by which a historically large and diverse but now also divided people accept a leader for a very powerful unified executive position. After two decades of continual delegitimization of American Presidents for tactical reasons of political infighting, the ritual has become even more important, as can be seen from the exuberance of the national conventions of the political parties and the unifying language that is used. More
The Rise of the Concert Economy: A Modern Phenomenon with Afrobeats at the Forefront
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 In recent years, the music industry has undergone a profound transformation, with live performances becoming increasingly central to artists’ revenue streams. This shift has given rise to the “Concert Economy,” where live music events play a crucial role in an artist’s financial success. This change is especially evident in the rise of Afrobeats, a genre that has significantly impacted the global concert economy. More
A Journey Through Another Dismal Science
No. 49, Sep.-Oct. 2024 I first met Professor Silviu Neguţ as a name on a book cover, probably the noblest of encounters between a (timeless) master and a (future) disciple. In my wayward youth, I was enamoured of everything that resembled geography, a passion second only to football. I have matured since then into the fullness of my wisdom and subtlety of pursuits ;-), therefore I can no longer claim a passion for geography. I just… love it. (As for football, the passion remains, defying maturity, wisdom and subtlety :-D). More
Futurenomics: From Exploring to Exploiting Societal Mega-trends, Catalysts and Game-changers
No. 48, Jul.-Aug. 2024 The exploration (aiming, inherently, at some kind of, at least, intellectual exploitation) of the future, as well as of the past, while differing on their basic ingredients – “visions” and “vestiges”, respectively –, shares a couple of adamant blemishes – our “incomplete information” and “bounded rationality”. We stubbornly compose mosaics (by means of imagination) about a past which we did not witness; and we, more or less superficially, extrapolate tendencies/trends (with a historical basis) for a future which we may or may not be there to witness. Inspired by a plethora of both “path dependencies” and “disruptive revolutions”, we can project scenarios, with varying degrees of confidence, on both past and future. However, “what comes next” is sensibly more concerning. More
Social Scoreboard – Romania vs. Poland in the EU
No. 48, Jul.-Aug. 2024 Eurostat has published the state of play of the Social Scoreboard for Member States, summarised in the evolution of 16 profile indicators. In terms of GDP per capita at standard purchasing power parity, Romania is at 80% of the EU average, on a par with Poland and higher than Hungary, Croatia (76%), Slovakia (73%), Latvia (71%), Greece (67%) and Bulgaria (64%). More
May You Live in Interesting Times
No. 48, Jul.-Aug. 2024 The current state of American politics is dire. A deepening polarization has taken root at the heart of American politics, affecting all aspects of discourse. The division between Republicans and Democrats is no longer solely based on policy, but on fundamental values and differing perceptions of reality. This has immediate consequences for the lives of ordinary citizens both within and beyond the borders of the United States. The global rise of populism and nationalism has had a particularly strong impact in the United States, transforming long-standing debates about American leadership in the free world and the enduring nature of the American dream into a climate of hostility, political violence, and hate. More
Transformations of the Socio-Political-Economic Systems at the Confluence with New Technologies: Revisiting the “Liberalism versus Statism” Dilemma in the Context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0
No. 48, Jul.-Aug. 2024 Industrial Revolutions (IR) represent periods of scientific and technological transformation in which economic sectors, as well as social structures, in their broadest understanding, are subjected to “stress tests”, under the combined action of the forces of progress/modernization and conservation/tradition. These are processes that, for example, economists can examine in terms of delivering economic growth/development/sustainability or that political scientists can study, in turn, as fermenting in democratic/dictatorial/autocratic regimes. Holding two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retaining the ability to function is an inescapable challenge since putting social knowledge (for instance, scientific or technological) to good use is associated with the freedom of circulation of ideas, though also with their centralization, regulation and planning. More
An Uneasy Partnership: Medieval Church and State
No. 48, Jul.-Aug. 2024 Western civilization, which emerged during the late Roman imperial period, is a mixture – perhaps even a synthesis – of Roman and Christian elements. Christianity rejuvenated the Roman world by introducing a dynamism and resilience lacking in earlier civilizations. The adoption and spread of the Christian faith inspired cultural, moral, and technological innovations within a Roman legal and administrative architecture which, through the generations, have transformed everyday life nearly everywhere. This article is drawn from the first part of chapter 3, “Early Christendom,” of Crossed Swords: Entanglements between Church and State in America (unpublished dissertation, University of Oregon, 1984), 101-19. It is a companion piece to “Early Christendom: Chrysalis of the West” published in the Mar./Apr. 2023 issue. More
SWIFT
No. 48, Jul.-Aug. 2024 Twenty-five years ago, during World Economic History class in university, our professor decided to “indulge in a bit of showing off” (this was long before the Romanian expression translated as “making an arrogance” [a face o aroganță – sic!] became an iconic idiom thanks to the local shepherd + real estate + football magnate Gigi Becali). My professor’s very first words during the very first class were Azúcar Moreno. It was the name of an acclaimed Spanish musical duo consisting of sisters Antonia and Encarnacion Salazar who topped the charts back in the day and had just finished a well-received concert in Romania. The name of the band itself meant “brown sugar”, a self-referential nod to the sisters’ Romani origins. During that semester, the professor took us through various historical eras peppered with hints and references to these two words, discussing at length about routes and resources, relations and regimes, all connected by the “red thread” of the savour of the goods (or the scent of money) and of the colour or the skin (along with the sound of suffering). He did not abandon his eccentricity even during the exam. Sensing a sports-related metaphor in my answer to a standard exam question, he issued me a challenge, again, long before it became a common practice on social media. To earn the highest mark, I had to not only enumerate ten sports teams from the US regardless of the sport or league, but to do it in the (chrono)logical order in which the terms associated with them entered the American vernacular. I walked away from that exam with an “A” (10) and the revelation that skilful wordplays could add value to scientific knowledge. More
