ABSTRACT
The tragic events of 11 September 2001 were seen be Romanian leaders and the population as a critical test for our country in order to demonstrate its willingness and capacity to act as a responsible de facto member of the western security community. Romanian leaders and civil society understood that the new European security framework had at its core the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, gathering the Western states which stand together, during the Cold War, in face of the Soviet threat. The Romanian nation and its political elite prize very much the solidity of the transatlantic link which was strongly expressed when NATO invoked for the first time. In Romania, the transatlantic rift was largely understood by some security analysts as due to the "systemic tension" between status-quo powers and revolutionary ones. Romania was among the states which endorsed the proposal to build up an International Criminal Court (ICC) and it accepted the status of this future legal body.
