Proiect editorial apărut sub egida Fundației Transilvania Leaders

Just a few decades ago, it was said that we lived in a “world” made up of two or three “worlds”: the Western world, the Soviet sphere, and the so-called “Third World.” After the Cold War ended, a type of market-unifying globalism spread that was often associated with American unipolarism. Formulas for global governance were sought outside of the UN framework. Complex global interdependencies were considered evidence that humanity should live in a centrally governed world. However, such a scenario was not feasible. Idealism and realism in international relations are distinct paradigms with different applications. After the 2008 crisis, globalism underwent a transformation, and nation-states reaffirmed their sovereignty. The result was not a complete return to the Westphalian order but rather a reconsideration of the autonomous status of legitimate governance. Thus, globalization, interdependency, and interconnectedness have been maintained and reinvented. Nation-states have proposed revising traditional attributes, emphasized the external framework, and agreed to involve non-governmental actors in internal and international decision-making processes. For economic, financial, and managerial reasons, they have also preferred the regional associative dimension. Based on this vision of international relations, we can predict that the future international system will feature a multipolar world comprised of several worlds. In this system, the balance of power and complex interdependencies will require a functional framework. In other words, we will live in a world of worlds! – Vasile Pușcaș

In Magna Civitas. The worlds of our world, Prof. Pușcaș offers with a critical eye a study of international systems from the time of the First World War to the present day: the successes and the failures. He brings to the subject years of research and study. Equally important, he brings as a balance his own years representing Romania in Washington and Brussels, where he could observe, participate and importantly contribute to the workings of interstate activity. He offers a welcome Romanian perspective too often missing in serious study of these turbulent years. This book will be an enduringly important contribution to the field. Highly recommended. – Ernest H. Latham, Jr., PhD, historian and diplomat, Washington, D.C.

Magna civitas mirrors the work of a lifetime of Vasile Pușcaș who can rightly be considered one of the most outstanding political scientists of Romania and beyond. This book is a compendium of his consummate scholarly work on the history of international relations, on the course of contemporary and political-diplomatic events and on the predicament of Romania in a global and regional context. We also get a meaningful insight into his activity as an adroit political practitioner who successfully negotiated the normalization of relations with the USA and the country’s accession to the European Union. – Anneli Ute Gabanyi, PhD, political scientist, Berlin

Herein lies the originality of the book we present to the reader of international and European negotiations, because in it the author enters the very heart of the way of being Europe which the EU has come to embody. Negotiation is not simply the process by which a country achieves accession to the EU, it is the everyday life of the European Union itself, lived through building consensus around small things which then give substance to great things, objectives and goals. – Alberto Gasparini, PhD, sociologist, Trieste

Contents

Abbreviations

Foreword

In memoriam Keith Hitchins: Honesty and the writing of history

I. The International System

I.1. 1914: Central Europe and the reconfiguration of the international system

I.2. World War II and the reconfiguration of the international system

I.3. Global developments and the role of the EU

I.4. The Transatlantic partnership: A Euro-American debate

I.5. Management of the global crisis in the 20th century

I.6. Management of post-crisis global interdependencies

II. The New Regionalism

II.1. “The historic complex” in Central Europe and the chances of political pluralism

II.2. The Treaty of Trianon: History and politics

II.3. Romania and Slovakia (1944-1948)

II.4. The new political geography of post-Madrid Central Europe

II.5. The new Europe and the Mediterranean area. Geo-economics, geo-culture and social communication

II.6. Globalization and regionalism: The “strategic regions” (Central Asia)

III. International/European Negotiations

III.1. Romania and the American Most-Favored Nation status (1990-1993)

III.2. 1993: How did an American epistemic community regard the regranting of the Most-Favored Nation status to Romania

III.3. Negotiation as a method for making Europe

III.4. Accession negotiations with the European Union

III.5. EU accession negotiations: The case of Romania

About the Author

Index

VASILE PUȘCAȘ (born July 8, 1952, Surduc, Sălaj, Romania) is the Jean Monnet Ad Personam Professor at Babeș-Bolyai University, researcher at the “George Barițiu” Institute of History of the Romanian Academy – Cluj-Napoca. A member of Academia Europaea and corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, he is an expert in international relations and a renowned former diplomat. Between 2000 and 2004, he was Romania’s Chief Negotiator for EU Accession and a member of the Romanian Government. He graduated in history and social sciences and obtained a PhD in history from Babeș-Bolyai University. His areas of research are: Contemporary History, International Relations, European Negotiations, Transatlantic Relations, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Authored books: Dr. Petru Groza – For a “New World” (1985, forbidden by the Communist regime), Alma Mater Napocensis – The Ideal of the Modern University (1994), World War II. Transylvania and the European Arrangements. 1940-1944 (1995), The Pulse of history in Central Europe (1998), Romania’s Downfall in the Balkans (2000), Contemporary International Relations (2003), Hope and Despair – Romanian-Allied Negotiations, 1943-1944 (1995, 2003), Negotiating with the European Union, 6 volumes (2003-2005), “Sticks and Carrots”. Regranting the Most-Favored Nation Status for Romania (USA Congress, 1990-1996 (2006), European Negotiations. A Case Study: Romania’s Accession to the EU (2006), International/Transnational Relations (2005, 2007), Romania and again Romania. Notes for a History of the Present (2007), Romania Towards the European Union. Accession Negotiations (2000-2004) (2007), Romania: From Pre-Accession to Post-Accession (2008), European Topics (2008), Euro-Topics (2009), International/Transnational Relations (2009), Managing Global Interdependencies (2010), Europe in Crisis (2011), The European Union. States–Markets–Citizens (2011), The European Spirit Today (2012), EU Accession Negotiations (A Handbook) (2013), Negotiations for Partnerships (2016), Romania and the European Way of Life (2017), Philip E. Mosely on Transylvania and Bessarabia (2017), Iuliu Maniu as Seen by Romanian Americans (2018), The Great Union – 1918 – Greater Romania (2018), University. Society. Modernization. The Ideal of the Modern University in Cluj (1919-1945) (1995, 2003, 2019), The Ribbentrop-Ciano Diktat, Transylvania and the Romanian-Hungarian Relations (1940-1944) (2021), Keith Hitchins: The Historian’s Honesty (2021), History in Everyday Life (2021), Romanians in the European Union (2022), Romania and the Changing World. Studies and Analyses (2023), Magna civitas. The worlds of our world. Studies in the history of international relations (2025).