Department of International Relations and European Integration

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Departamentul de Relații Internaționale și Integrare Europeană este domeniul fondator al SNSPA. Departamentul de Relații Internaționale și Integrare Europeană a fost gândit în aşa fel încât sa asigure o strânsă legătură între pregătirea teoretică și practica executată în sfera politicii externe, de securitate sau apărare, dezvoltând soluții capabile să realizeze conexiunea dintre zona academică și cea de expertiză. Departamentul de Relații Internaționale și Integrare Europeană organizează programe masterale în domeniul relațiilor internaționale, diplomației, studiilor de securitate și studiilor europene, care permit angajarea în domenii diverse, în spațiul public, dar și în cel privat. Corpul profesoral al Departamentului de Relații Internaționale și Integrare Europeană este format din cadre didactice cu o îndelungată expertiză în domeniul relațiilor externe, diplomație, instituții de securitate națională, organizații nonguvernamentale internaționale, reputați practicieni sau personalități ale vieții publice românești și europene.

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Artificial Intelligence and Inequality in European Union
(National University of Political Studies and Public Administration - Department of International Relations and European Integration, 2020-01-12) Caradaică, Mihail
The paper aims to explore the roots of inequality in the European Union by focusing on the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enlarge the actual digital divide. Each time a new technology is broadly implemented in society, it generates economic and social gaps. There are many similar examples in history when a new invention brought poverty for significant categories of people, who faced unemployment due to new industrial machines or found themselves unable to operate or afford new devices. Therefore, the research question that I will try to answer in this paper is: "does artificial intelligence have the potential to create more inequality in the European Union?". To answer this question, I will firstly address the issue of AI's state of the art and I will research how this new technology is industrially implemented, aiming to see to what extent it represents a threat to our jobs or our way of life. Secondly, I will search for social mechanisms that generate inequality by using the concept of digital divide. This theoretical approach focuses on the possibility of people impoverishing due to the lack of basic skills and the impossibility to afford new available technologies. Thirdly, I will develop a case study, a comparative approach on EU's member states strategies in the field of AI.
Can a Cyberattack Become an Act of War? European and Trans-Atlantic Perspectives
(European Institute Romania, 2024-06) Ducaru, Sorin; Caradaică, Mihail; Costea, Ana Maria
In the last two decades, along with the process of digitalisation of businesses and state apparatuses, the world has faced a new major issue that can produce physical / non-physical damage, and equally threaten individual security and the state’s sovereignty: cyberattacks. Confronted with the strategic competition – within a multipolar world – coupled with this new challenge that can redefine the nature of war, NATO member states have tried to find a common answer by linking cyberattacks to Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, NATO’s collective defence principle. Understandably, Article 5 was drafted while having in mind the aspects of deterrence and defence related to conventional wars. However, it has been invoked by the Allies only once, i.e., after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the USA, which represented quite an unconventional scenario, certainly unanticipated by the Alliance’s Founding Fathers. Given the current trend, and reflecting on the increase in the complexity, intensity and persistence of the known cyberattacks, it is important to study the potential game-changing circumstances of such unconventional attacks, which might trigger Article 5 and its collective defence principle. The present paper seeks to depict the complexities and consequences of cyberattacks within the framework of the collective defence principle.
Changing the path of climate change. Voluntary certification for carbon removals in European Union : the case of forestry projects
(National University of Political Studies and Public Administration - Faculty of Political Sciences, 2023-06-22) Caradaică, Mihail
Climate change and environmental degradation are the crisis generators today and, in the years to come as they threaten our social, economic and political order in Europe and worldwide. In this context, European Union committed to reaching climate neutrality by 2050 as the member states have agreed on a European Green Deal, and the European Commission has adopted several proposals for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. Nevertheless, achieving no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 requires high investments in the decarbonisation of the economy and in developing ways to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere for the residual emissions that cannot be eliminated.
Civil Society as the Arena of the New European Climate Hegemony: A neo-Gramscian Approach to European Green Transition
(Civil Szemle Foundation, 2024-07-30) Caradaică, Mihail
Using a neo-Gramscian approach, this paper explores the concept of civil society as an arena where European climate hegemony is built. The EU's green transition, which involves deep social and economic transformations, needs extensive popular support to avoid social instability and the rise of populist parties. To achieve this, the European Com-mission is trying to construct a counter-hegemonic discourse that challenges the traditional modes of a fossil fuel-based economy by creating an alliance of actors around the ideology of just transition. Therefore, the study addresses the following research question: who are the change agents within European civil society that have aligned with the alliance, and how is fostering a counter-hegemonic discourse against the traditional economic model? By employing a qualitative methodological approach, the study explores the crucial function of civil society in the European green transition, exposing the most important agents and how these agents facilitate the formation of a new climate hegemony.
European Union in the Age of Neo-Liberalism
(National University of Political Studies and Public Administration - Department of International Relations and European Integration, 2013-07) Caradaică, Mihail
This paper belongs to the area of critical studies of European Integration and tries to analyse the super-structural dimension of European Integration and to identify its role in two areas of policy outputs. The theoretical approach is neo-gramscianism, which is focused on social forces agency in the process of integration and super-structural dimension of European Single Market. Since 1980, the interests of big capital, gathered in the European Round Table, shaped a neo-liberal dimension of the European economy, adapting it to the context of globalisation. But this neo-liberal project was also able to capture social-democratic, trade union and centrist demands into a neo-liberal European order, called by Bastiaan van Apeldoorn "embedded" neo-liberalism. This European model has also his limits because it puts the interests of capital in front of social policies through the assurance of market efficiency by EU, leading to a neoliberal hegemony. My purpose here is to see if neoliberal hegemony in European Union has a real impact on policies outputs, analysing the Eastern Enlargement and Europe 2020 Strategy.
Expert-based assessment of the potential of agroforestry systems in plain regions across Bihor County, Western Romania
(MDPI, 2023-11-08) Caradaică, Mihail; Apăfăian, Andrei; Budău, Ruben; Bratu, Iulian; Timofte, Claudia; Enescu, Mihai Cristian
Agroforestry systems are gaining increasing attention worldwide due to their several benefits both for landowners and also for the environment. Even though Romania has a great potential for adopting these systems on a large scale, only a few examples exist. The aim of this research was to highlight the main agroforestry systems that could be introduced in plain regions across Bihor County, Western Romania. A selection of the most suitable woody species and cereals was carried, based on available data and information. In order to select the most suitable combination, a set of eight criteria was considered and an Analytical Hierarchy Process Analysis was performed, with the aid of the Expert Choice Desktop (v. 11.5.1683) software package. The combinations that had the black locust as the main tree species scored better in comparison with the ones that had pedunculate oak as a main species. This research should be regarded as a first and important step in the analysis of several combinations of agroforestry systems that could be implemented across plain regions of Bihor County. Lastly, this proposed model could be replicated in similar studies aimed at selecting the most suitable agroforestry systems for certain sites. Future research should also consider criteria that account for various aspects, including the functional relationships of these future green spaces with nearby areas.
Gamification in transport services and the digital divide
(Universitatea din Oradea, Department of International Relations and European Studies, 2021) Caradaică, Mihail
As far as an increasing number of scientists are warning us about the destructive potential of climate change, humanity is facing a tremendous technological revolution. Also, the potential of new technologies to decrease the carbon footprint is significant, but the transition is highly dependent on people’s choices and behaviour. This is why, a new way of motivating people around the world emerged: gamification. But, as good and innovative this idea seems to be, as many concerns it rises. Because the focus is mainly on technology, in this paper I will analyse the process of gamification through the lens of the digital divide. The concept was first used in the 1990s to describe the social and economic gap that emerged between those who had access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and those who did not. Today it is mainly focused on the possibility that people would become even more marginalized due to the lack of basic skills and the impossibility to afford the new technologies on the market. Consequently, my research question is: “Is it possible that the introduction of gamification in the field of transportation increases the digital divide?”. I will try to answer this question by analysing what categories of people are targeted by gamification in transportation services and which are those that could be excluded. Also, my approach is not limited to a specific country or global area, but is considering gamification and digital divide at an international level.
M-Learning in The Coronavirus Era
(Faculty of History and Political Science, „Ovidius” University of Constanta, 2021-02-15) Negrescu, Victor; Caradaică, Mihail
M-learning solutions (mobile Massive Open Online Courses – MOOCs) are key elements in a world affected by the coronavirus pandemic, considering that more than half of the world’s student population was forced to stay at home during this crisis. Mobile MOOCs enable exchanges of information by using mobile devices without needing direct interaction. They have the potential to help users limit the risks and enable organizations, students and professors to continue their activities. The m-learning applications gained a lot of ground in the current context and can be seen significantly in areas such as online teaching, classroom management, language learning, and many more. In practice, the implementation of the mobile MOOCs adapted to the current challenges need to correspond to several criteria and recommendations identified by experts, in order to be viable on a large scale. This paper analyses the security issues related to the most used m-learning solutions in the current coronavirus pandemic by examining the existing empirical researches that provide a valuable insight into the requirements surrounding these applications. The findings of the study reveal that the m-learning solutions available today enable us to overcome one of the ever-growing challenges of our time, and it is essential to comprehensively evaluate them in order to enable future developers to create new and better secured mobile MOOCs adapted to the current needs.
Neo-Gramscian Approach on Europeanization
(Faculty of Social and Administrative Sciences, Nicolae Titulescu University, 2014-07) Caradaică, Mihail
This paper belongs to the area of critical studies in European Integration and I will try to demonstrate that the concept of Europeanization is not able to capture the nature of social change which occurs in member states. Nowadays, this concept is largely used by scholars to describe all of the economic, political and social changes that are taking place in national domestic policy under the influence of the European Union, understood as a distinct polity. In other words, this approach of Europeanization is limited only to the European geographical space and, as a consequence, it cannot capture the wider context in which the European Union exists – globalization and the nature of world order. My aim is to analyse the concept of Europeanization through the neo-gramscian theoretical framework and to see if it can be overlapped with the process of European integration. I will do this by assuming a historical materialist view on the European integration process and international relations which will help me understand these changes through the Marxist perspective of structure and superstructure. Those concepts are mutually constructed in the neo-gramscian approach and they are represented by the agency of social forces and its superstructural dimension – the neoliberal ideology according to Baastian Van Apeldoorn, Andeas Bieler, Adam David Morton or Stephen Gill
New patterns of europeanisation: digitalizing Romania's educational system during COVID-19 crisis
(National University of Political Studies and Public Administration - Department of International Relations and European Integration, 2024-07-15) Caradaică, Mihail; Cucută, Radu Alexandru; Negrescu, Victor; Ungureanu, Radu-Sebastian
As a result of the major pressure exerted by the COVID-19 pandemic and its management on students and teachers, the EU member states and institutions face the necessity to accelerate the digitalization of education. The EU interventions in this field open the debate on whether digital education will be another subject of Europeanisation as the supranational institutions are acquiring more competences, and whether a new European policy approach was generated by the pandemic. Therefore, the paper investigates whether the COVID crisis represents a major shift in the Europeanisation of digital education in the EU. We will thus try to assess this transformation by analysing the impact of the crisis on digital education, showcasing Romania and the manner in which the national government designed its public policies against the background of the EU positions, recommendations and measures.

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