ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the rationales that prompted the Romanian leaders to forge the country’s (well-studied) special relations with the West and its approach to the European Economic Community, their expectations and the overall results of that endeavour. Drawing mainly from evidence from the archives of the Romanian Communist Party and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this chapter illustrates both domestic and international rationales, such as the national strategy for economic development, interpretations and perceptions of the impact of Western European integration on Romanian commercial interests, and the consequences of the 1979 oil crisis. It also reveals a more complex and diverse set of elites that decided on Romania’s approach to the West, challenging the view of a solitary dictator in power.
