ABSTRACT
Romanian foreign policy after the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu gives evidence of some important shifts, especially as compared to the last years of Ceausescu’s reign. This chapter examines the post-revolutionary foreign policy goals and their pursuit and that new environment after briefly reviewing developments under Ceausescu and surrounding the revolution. Under Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian regime categorically and comprehensively rejected the reforms begun in the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev. The reaction of Romania’s former allies to the demonstrations in Timisoara and other Romanian cities was sharpened as a result of the liberation from party control of the media in most East European countries. The new Romanian government was evidently willing to pursue only incremental change with regard to the Hungarian minority, evidently fearing that any more rapid change would alienate its key supporters. The civil war in Yugoslavia, while somewhat dangerous for Romania, has afforded the regime the opportunity to assert its national posture.
