This book arrives at a very significant time throughout Europe. Not only is the European Union currently facing a prolonged economic and social crisis, with nascent political consequences, such as the ascension of populist parties in the 2014 European elections, but also its Eastern neighbourhood is confronted with the growing hostility of an assertive Russia, opposing any new advance of the West towards its frontiers. Bringing together experts in fields such as international relations, political science, political sociology, diplomacy, security studies, and European studies, with robust academic and professional backgrounds and expertise with regard to the region, this volume explores this significant "window of opportunity," and will undoubtedly appeal to a global audience. The considerable diversity of approaches and styles here allows a multidimensional diagnosis and analysis of present-day Eastern Europe. This volume defines a series of major regional opportunities, vulnerabilities and dilemmas, and explores the complex perspectives of the "new Eastern Europe," located between the European Union and Russia, under its current name of the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood, along with the tensions and challenges of a possible second Cold War.
About the Author: Valentin Naumescu is Associate Professor of Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, Security Studies and Comparative Politics at the Department of International Relations and American Studies at the Faculty of European Studies, Babes-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca. Dr. Naumescu is the coordinator of the Master's programme in Transatlantic Studies. His publications include Democracy and Security in the 21st Century: Perspectives on a Changing World (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014); Foreign Policy and Diplomacy: An Introduction (EFES, 2014); Themes of International Politics: Conflicts, Tensions, Debates (EFES, 2014); and Politics and Government in Canada: An Introduction (Maple Red Publishing House Toronto, 2010). Dr. Naumescu served as Secretary of State in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2007, and as Consul General in Toronto from 2008 to 2012, with the diplomatic rank of Minister Counsellor. Dr. Naumescu is the founder and chairman of the "Citadel - Group of Reflections and International Analysis," a think tank specializing in international politics at Babes-Bolyai University. Dan Dungaciu is Professor at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Sociology of the University of Bucharest. He is Director of the Institute of Political Science and International Relations of the Romanian Academy and President of the Black Sea University Foundation. He is also the coordinator of the Master's programme in Security Studies at the University of Bucharest. He served as Undersecretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 2006, and as the Presidential Adviser for International Relations and European Integration for the President of the Republic of Moldova in 2010. He is the author of numerous specialized studies and publications in the fields of political science and sociology, including Bessarabia is Romania? (2011) and Elements for a theory of nation and nationalism (2012).