Browsing by Author "Costea, Ana Maria"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Assessing the Involvement/ Development of Civil Society as Part of the European Integration Process of the Eastern Partnership States
(Civil Szemle Foundation, 2023-12) Costea, Ana Maria; Melenciuc Ioan, Ioana Roxana
2023 marks 14 years since the European Union (EU) launched the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Program, an instrument that was designed to respond to the vulnerabilities and threats specific to the six Eastern European countries that were not part of the EU (the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Armenia). After several series of critics, the EaP was revised in 2017 in order to break the one size fits all policy and, thus, to be more adaptable to each specific case. Although the Program was not designed and still is not a platform for future accession, two out of six states are currently candidate countries to the EU (Moldova and Ukraine), fact that emphasizes even more the importance of the EaP as a platform used to start the integration process. On the other side, one critic that still stands is represented by the fact that it does not offer any security guaranties against external threats, fact that was seen in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and in 2022 when the war in Ukraine started. In terms of tangible evaluation of its results, the EaP indexes were launched in 2011 and the European Commission's reports regarding the 2020 deliverables represent ones of the most important tools for measuring the integration level of each country. Since the war threatens the stability and the security of the entire region, if not of the entire continent, one aspect that tends to be overlooked is represented by the importance of civil society and active citizenship. The present research aims to assess the level of development and involvement of the civil society between 2011-2022 throughout all six EaP countries. It is also emphasized the role of the civil society and its development during the periods of crisis, as well as the link between external funding and the sustainability of the activities performed by the civil society.
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.
Perceptions of Civil Society in Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Context of the Nagorno–Karabakh Conflict
(Civil Szemle Foundation, 2023-06) Brie, Mircea; Costea, Ana Maria; Petrila, Laurențiu
This paper aims to be a contextual, conceptual and factual analysis of the complicated relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and what are the main perceptions of civil society in these countries in the context of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is a dispute over the province’s status as a major source of tension between the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the leadership of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the mediation of which other international actors got involved, such as OSCE, the Minsk group consisting of France, the Russian Federation and the USA. Overall, whereas Armenia tends to be on a progressive scale with some concerns over the possibility to return to a non-democratic regime, Azerbaijan is already placed on a regressive scale. Given the topic of the paper, we had a closer attention to the 2020-2021 period of time since the Nagorno Karabakh war took place in the autumn of 2020 – thus, 2011 being the first year when the European Commission launched the European Integration Index for the Eastern Partnership states and 2022 being the year with the most recent data regarding the topic. In what regards the results of our research, both civil societies have been involved in the conflict resolution, but with various degrees, taking into consideration the different national ex-ante conditions. Armenia proved to be more resilient over the years, thus, although facing mass protests ending with the Parliament building being temporally seized, with a general feeling of fear towards the possibility of regressing, the democratic level remained the same, in 2021-2022 being declared as a partly fee country, whereas in the case of Azerbaijan it fell under the regressive paradigm with: a practically non-existent independent media, very limited tools to hold the state accountable, measures that were taken against the activists that declared themselves against the war and civil society organizations that do not have access to foreign funding.
Private-Public Partnerships in Cyber Space As Deterrence Tools. The Trans-Atlantic View
(2023-12) Costea, Ana Maria
Nowadays technological development has brought new threats and risks that states need to face in cyberspace. Given the multitude of actors, reasons, strategies, various types of attacks, the classical way of viewing the state as the sole security provider no longer functions. In this framework, private companies gain more and more competencies and responsibilities, especially in the areas of critical infrastructure. The present article explores the role of public-private partnerships in the national cybersecurity strategies of each NATO member state as tools of deterrence. The paper starts by analysing the concepts of deterrence and resilience. Secondly, it emphasizes the view of NATO regarding the topic, this aspect being followed by each of the 31 NATO member states’ most recent national cybersecurity strategies, highlighting the objectives, measures, and examples of PPPs that each state has in order to highlight the status-quo at empirical level.