Reproducing ‘geopolitics’ – national identity representations of foreign affairs in Moldova by Roxana Adina Humă A thesis submitted to Plymouth University in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Government July 2015 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author's prior consent. Roxana Adina Humă Reproducing ‘geopolitics’ – national identity representations of foreign affairs in Moldova Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been completed without the support, patience and time of a whole range of people in the UK, in Romania and, especially in Moldova. Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisory team, Professor Karl Cordell and Dr Shabnam Holliday, for their patience, guidance and for always being there to encourage me whenever I needed it. I would also like to thank the rest of the department and my PhD colleagues, for their support. Lastly, special thanks to Dr Brieg Powel for inspiring me to start this project. Sunt recunoscătoare tuturor celor din Moldova si Romania care au găsit o oră pentru a sta de vorbă cu mine. Am mai multe dovezi de bunătatea moldovenilor decât pentru orice alt argument menționat in teză. Mulțumiri multe pentru Ruslan și tanti Raia fiindcă au avut grija de mine in Moldova și m-au ajutat pe tot parcursul studiului. De asemenea pentru Ina și Valerica pentru că m-au suportat la Chișinău. This project would have never been started without Mădălina and Diana holding my hand through the application process and it would have not been completed without Matt’s support and rather annoying trust in my abilities. Și cel mai important, mulțumesc mama, tata si buna pentru răbdare. Si pentru ca datorita vouă am ajuns aici. 1 2 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Graduate Committee. Work submitted for this research degree at the Plymouth University has not formed part of any other degree either at Plymouth University or at another establishment. The study was financed with the aid of a studentship from the Economic and Social Research Council. Relevant scientific seminars and conferences were regularly attended at which work was often presented; several papers were prepared for publication. Publications: ‘The Mioritic Nation – An alternative approach to Moldovan national identity’ (accepted, Nationalities Papers) ‘A Moldovan ‘sheep’? - Framing Moldovan passivity’, Nations and Nationalism 21 (3), 2015, 503–523, doi: 10.1111/nana.12125 ‘Contested Borders: Representing boundaries within Moldovan museums’ in “Placing” Europe in the Museum - People(s), places, identities (2013) edited by Christopher Whitehead et al., Milan: Politecnico di Milano, pp. 45 – 60 Presentation and Conferences Attended: ‘Europeanised “brotherhood”: Romanian portrayals of the 2009 Moldovan “Twitter Revolution”’, ASN World Convention, Columbia University, 24-26 April 2014. ‘The West through a Moldovan lens – Reflections on a liminal identity’, Second Euroacademia International Conference ‘Re-Inventing Eastern Europe’, Prague, 15-16 November 2013. ‘Between liminality and hybridity - Moldovan identity and the borders of Europe’, 14th Annual UACES Student Forum Research Conference, ‘Evolving Europe: Voices of the Future’, Loughborough University, July 8-9, 2013. ‘A Moldovan ‘sheep’? - Deconstructing Moldova’s lack of agency’, Aberystwyth-Lancaster Postgraduate Conference 2013, Manchester University, 5-7 June 2013. ‘No room for the middle ground? The problems facing Moldovan civic identity’, ASN World Convention, Columbia University, 18-20 April 2013; developed and also presented at BASEES 2014 Annual Conference, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, 5-7 April 2014 and ASN Convention, Central European University, 12-14 June 2014. ‘How a ‘revolution’ almost made us forget about the nation – Romanian representations of Moldova during the 2009 ‘Twitter Revolution’’, 23rd Annual ASEN Conference, LSE, 9-11 April 2013. ‘Contested borders - representing boundaries within Moldovan museums’, MeLA Conference, Newcastle University, 2-3 September 2012. 3 Word Count of the main body of the thesis: 72,275 Date 22.07.2015 4 Abstract Breaking away from the positivist trend dominating the literature on Moldova’s foreign relations, this thesis analyses the means through which national identity discourses impact on Moldovan societal representation of foreign policy. It contends that national identity perpetuates a Cold War inspired view of foreign affairs. This construction is defined by two main elements, the representation of the civilizational and geopolitical cleavage between East and West and the lack of agency awarded to the Moldovan self. This is achieved through an in-depth study of the national identity debate in Moldova. It focuses on both the two main national identity discourses in Moldova, Romanianism and Moldovanism. For this analysis, I employ a post-structuralist approach, conceptualising national identity as a discourse that helps us make sense of the world. Through this function and its persistence across Moldovan articulations, national identity plays a key role in representations of foreign affairs in Moldova. More specifically, the opposition between Romanianism and Moldovanism reproduces the East-West geopolitical and civilizational cleavage, whilst the representation of Moldovan inferiority, historical debt and the Great Power Complex reiterates Moldova’s passivity and lack of agency. Through this Cold War representation of international affairs, national identity offers both the resources and the limits within which official Moldovan foreign policy articulations function. In this way, national identity is crucial in understanding the mechanisms through which foreign policy is legitimated and, especially, the validity and credibility of certain arguments and the unlikelihood of others. 5 Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 5 List of Figures and Tables .............................................................................................................. 9 Acronyms ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 13 I.1. Relevance ........................................................................................................................... 14 I.2. Historical context ............................................................................................................... 18 I.3. Chapter Outline ................................................................................................................. 26 A note on the text .................................................................................................................... 35 1. Theoretical and Methodological Underpinnings ..................................................................... 37 1.1. Discourse – defining the world ......................................................................................... 38 1.2. National Identity ............................................................................................................... 43 1.3. Identity and Foreign Policy ............................................................................................... 50 1.4. Agency and Structure in IR ............................................................................................... 55 1.5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 61 2. Methodology ........................................................................................................................... 63 2.1. Data Collection ................................................................................................................. 64 2.1.1. Levels of Data ............................................................................................................ 67 2.1.2. Types of Data ............................................................................................................. 72 2.2. Method and Data Analysis ................................................................................................ 85 2.2.1. Toolbox ...................................................................................................................... 89 2.2.2. Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 93 3. Moldovan national identity – ‘between’ Moldovanism and Romanianism ............................ 99 3.1. Building on the existing literature .................................................................................. 103 3.2. Theoretical and Methodological considerations ............................................................ 106 3.3. Language ......................................................................................................................... 109 3.4. History ............................................................................................................................ 120 3.4.1. Historical Narratives ................................................................................................ 124 3.4.2. Key Events: 1812, 1918 and 1940 ............................................................................ 127 3.5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 147 4. Articulating the East-West Geopolitical cleavage ................................................................. 153 6