Scientific Annals of “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi (New Series) POLITICAL SCIENCE

Revisiting Securitization Theory in a Fragmented World: The Shifting Landscape of Security and Threat Construction

Corina Barbaros, Liliana Beniuc, Emil Andrei Toescu, Hera Erin Susanyi — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This theoretical paper explores the expansion of the security concept beyond traditional military strength. Technological advancements, societal transformations, environmental challenges, and strategic communication have significantly shaped perceptions and constructions of threats in discourse. The study analyzes securitization (Buzan, Weaver & de Wilde, 1998; Balzacq, 2005; Xu & Shi, 2025) as a concept influenced by these factors. It introduces the notion of a ‘security imaginary’, defined as a collection of narratives, symbols, and communicative discourses (Mokry, 2023) that characterize the contemporary international environment, and initiates a discussion on the reconfiguration of current understandings of securitization. The analysis demonstrates how this imaginary has evolved across four interconnected domains. First, societal vulnerabilities arising from populist politics, polarization, and deception have rendered trust and shared belonging essential security assets. Second, the proliferation of cyberspace, technology, and artificial intelligence has redefined deterrence, knowledge, and surveillance in a data-driven context. Third, cultural processes increasingly commercialize fear, transforming danger into a form of “threat theatre” for audiences. Finally, the scope of security has expanded both globally and temporally due to the impact of climate change.
Recent developments in the international arena indicate a convergence between traditional and contemporary security discourses. Current conceptualizations of threats integrate earlier emphases on defense, sovereignty, and resilience with a modern, shared language of threat. This transformation is driven not only by coercion, force, and power but also by words, symbols, and meaning. As a result, security now encompasses both defense and the construction of meaning, leading to significant implications.

Acknowledgement: This research was supported by the project “EU and Romania’s Contribution to Civil Security in Moldova: Policies, Strategic Partnerships, and Strengthening European Identity (SECURE-MD)”, project code PN-IV-PCB-RO-MD-2024-0237, financed by the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI).

Migration’s Structural Impact on the European Union’s Security: Institutional Assessments and Strategic Implications (2022–2025)

Liliana Beniuc, Carolina Budurina-Goreacii, Ana-Maria Andronache — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article investigates the structural impact of migration on the European Union’s (EU) security order in the period 2022–2025, linking forced displacement from Ukraine, persistent mixed flows along key routes and the adoption of the 2024 Pact on Migration and Asylum. It argues that migration operates as an exogenous shock that accelerates “high-level” integration whenever perceived loss of control reaches a critical political threshold. Mobilizing insights from migration studies, european integration theory and securitization approaches, the article conceptualizes EU migration governance as a multi-layered regime that combines human-security objectives with hybrid-security logics. Empirically, it examines three dimensions: the immediate response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, centered on the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive and the Strategic Compass; the data-driven management of evolving routes and risks, including the role of EU agencies and interoperable IT systems; and the legal–institutional consolidation brought by the Pact, with its permanent solidarity mechanism, expanded border procedures and crisis tools. The analysis shows how this hybrid security of migration simultaneously strengthens the EU’s capacity to act as a security provider and institutionalizes exceptional governance at the borders, thereby reconfiguring the balance between border control, solidarity and fundamental rights.

Liberal Variants Of Communitarianism

Bogdan Constantin Mihailescu — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In political philosophy, in order to obtain a balanced view, concepts that seem opposite are sometimes hybridized. Liberal communitarianism is the result of such a process. It attempts to reconcile liberal principles and values with the theses of communitarianism regarding the importance of community identity, cultural framework and social responsibility. Instead of the tensions between cosmopolitan liberal views, centered on individuals and those centered on community specifics, liberal communitarianism proposes a synthesis. We are, in equal measure, individuals and social beings. Suggestions of liberal communitarianism can contribute to identifying solutions that, through their moderation and reasonableness, will be able to achieve broad social agreements, which are increasingly necessary in the context of ideological radicalism and of the current intense political polarization.

Protesting For a Problematic Status Quo: Romanian Magistrates’ Responses to Judicial Pension Reform

Ovidiu Gherasim-Proca — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of the most debated topics concerning the reform of the Romanian judiciary has been the perceived need to remove some of the benefits associated with the special retirement regime available to judges, prosecutors, and administrative personnel assimilated to magistrates. Such benefits have become a symbol of entrenched privileges of the elite, while defended by the magistrates as a necessary guarantee of their institutional independence. This article examines the political conflict surrounding the 2025 Romanian judicial pension reform, focusing on the apparent inability of the judiciary to mobilize in protest and to act as a veto player, despite its immense bargaining power. Drawing on documentary analysis of legislative proceedings, judicial council decisions and public statements, the article argues that the magistrates’ willingness to compromise reflects the attachment of the judicial elite to a dysfunctional and unsustainable bargain with the political decision-makers: excessive workloads and organizational inertia traded for relatively high levels of remuneration and special pension entitlements.

The Electoral Violence – A Re-Emerging Concept in the Analysis of Contemporary Political Systems?

Dorina Țicu — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article aims to analyze the concept of electoral violence, which seems to be increasingly relevant in the present day world, as it re-emerges in the context of multiple electoral competitions held in 2024. The interest for such an analysis is determined by the fact that electoral violence seems to be an increasingly present phenomenon in a world made up mainly of democratic political systems that do not encourage such forms of political participation.

From this point of view, this article aims to define the concept of electoral violence, to determine the possible causes and consequences of the way in which its corresponding phenomena take form, and to conduct a diagnosis based on the phenomenology of the term by referencing different cases where the manifestation of electoral violence could be observed.

Youth Civic Engagement in the Era of Disinformation. Fake News and Electoral Participation in Romania and the European Union

Emanuel-Ionuț Zanoschi — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In an age defined by profound digital transformations, the civic and political engagement of young people has become an essential topic for the health of democracy. This paper explores the relationship between youth civic participation and the phenomenon of disinformation, focusing on both the Romanian and European contexts. As young people are the primary users of digital media, their exposure to fake news and manipulative content can significantly shape their perceptions of politics, institutions, and electoral participation.
The paper combines a theoretical analysis of civic engagement, media education, and disinformation with an assessment of public policies and recent data provided by Eurobarometer, the European Commission, and the National Institute of Statistics. The findings highlight the need for extended media literacy education and for strengthening the dialogue between young citizens and democratic institutions.

Modernizing the State Security Bodies as Primary Institutional Components of the National Security System: the Experience of Romania and Ukraine

Diana Hîrbu, Marcel Bencheci — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article analyzes the indicators of security modernization in Ukraine and Romania, with a focus on the structure of the state security bodies. The reforms initiated are by no means guaranteed to be successful in terms of their functioning and manifestation within and outside the national security system, especially in the current security context.
There is examines the specific features and functioning of the national security system of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic with EU accession objectives and currently facing a war in its eastern region, as well as that of Romania, a European Union member state.
To carry out a comparative analysis of the security bodies of Ukraine and Romania, we have identified the following research aspects: the structure of these institutions, the relationships between them and the way they contribute to ensuring national security, the evolution of the security-related normative framework over time, and the factors that influence its content.

Aknowledgement: The article was developed within the framework of the research project “The National Security of the Republic of Moldova in the Context of Accession to the European Union: Legal, Political, and Sociological Approaches”, sub-program code 010501.

Problems of Democratization in Post-communist Romania

Paula-Simona Gafincu (căs Ciubotă) — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Revolution of December 1989 represents the beginning of the transition from a communist to a democratic society. Romania will go through a slow period of transition or even stagnation, in some places. The lack of a strong elite, the takeover of power by the old party leaders, the absence of legislation condemning the former political regime and its atrocities and the problem of privatization, coincided with the creation of economic, political and social chaos. Thus, corruption, nepotism and favoritism to the detriment of meritocracy led to the impoverishment of the population and the deepening of social cleavages and, last but not least, to a strong migration that left the state without the human resources necessary for economic consolidation.
The research question that I started this study from – How did the absence of strong elite and corruption affect the establishment of the democratic regime in Romania and what were the long-term consequences of these difficulties in the democratization process? – will help me explore the state of these elements within the transition process. Throughout the research, I will use qualitative research methods: the study of official documents, regulations that played an important role in the elimination of the totalitarian regime, specialized literature, comparative analysis and case study for the situation in Romania. The answer I propose is as simple as possible: the factors mentioned above led to political instability, a decrease in citizens' trust in the political system and the search for non-democratic alternatives.

Democracy and Totalitarianism. A Response to Ovidiu Gherasim-Proca

Dragoș Dragoman — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In response to a recent critique, this article reaffirms that the current political developments point towards an unprecedented body of totalitarian methods and techniques that could be used by modern governments. Their task of silencing critique, manufacture consensus, extend surveillance and punish dissent is even easier to put in place due to the new political, cultural and mental environment. This is the alliance between the overwhelming state bureaucracy, jealous for any individual space of liberty, and late capitalism, an economic system struggling to adapt to and fully use the new technological means at the disposal of the state bureaucracy. This alliance is the most formidable obstacle for a free mind, for the free speech and for the practical liberty of former citizens, now reduced to simple objects of the joint economic and state power structures. Its victory over the free spirit would pose a much heavy burden on the next generations. If this alliance will dominate all public space, there will not be valuable external forces to fight and succeed, as it was the case with the defeated Nazism. The only hope will come from the inner erosion and the organic dismantling of this new power structure.

Paul Dobrescu, Florin Zeru, Comunicarea guvernamentala in Romania. O abordare strategica, Editura Tritonic, București, 2024

Ovidiu Gherasim-Proca — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000