In May 1994, the Foreign Relations Department of the Chamber of Deputies drew up and distributed to parliamentarians a "documentary" regarding the Pact on Stability in Europe. This happened not long before the meeting in Paris - where the Foreign Ministers were to finalize the concluding Document of the inaugural conference for a Pact on Stability in Europe. The "documentary" was therefore conceived to offer the necessary information to the country's main democratic institution, whose duty was to define Romania's interests, its position on the continent and in the world. We are not going to examine here all the questionable statements in that material. Suffice it to remind one of the assertions: the thesis of the Pact according to which "European standards regarding minorities have to be considered as minimal is dangerous".

The surprise which an informed reader might have before such an assertion was felt, in May 1994, also by the editors of the review we are presenting. International treaties and conventions explicitly state that the protection they grant is minimal. None of the stipulated regulations should be interpreted as being against the will of the states to offer a wider protection, through their internal legislation. The material of the Foreign Relations Department of the Chamber was not only of no avail to the deputies, but it also proposed a false image of the international regulations, affecting the parliamentarians' capacity to have their say on a matter of fundamental importance for the future of the state. (In an explanatory letter, the Analysis, Synthesis and Documentation Division of the Chamber's Foreign Relation Department specified that the respective opinion did not belong to the Foreign Relations Department, but to the experts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who participated in the preliminary negotiations prior to the Conference in Paris.)

This was the occurrence which convinced the initiators of the publication INTERNATIONAL STUDIES of the necessity for an independent review. A review which should deal in an adequate manner with the themes related to international relations and, particularly, the hot subjects which concern Romania's foreign policy, as well as with the national interests which, in the opinion of the editors, are connected to our country's participation in the promotion of the values of the Western democracy. Although the accuracy of the scientific discourse is a "non-negotiable" criterion, in the field of international relations the identification of the problems, the accents and the enumeration of solutions also depend on the finality, which in our case is Romania's integration in institutionalized Europe.

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES is a biannual publication to be issued in two series: the series RESEARCH WORKS, comprising analyses intended mainly for experts, diplomats, parliamentarians and political leaders or governmental decision-makers. Due to the relevance of these studies for Romania's foreign policy, as well as for the present international environment, they are sent, immediately after their elaboration, to potential "beneficiaries", before being published in the review.

The series RESEARCH WORKS is issued in a bilingual, Romanian and English, edition. Given the nature of the studies, the authors paid particular attention to the accuracy of the translation of the ideas from one language into the other.

The second series, MISCELLANEA, is meant to appeal to a larger readership, offering various information: on significant events, themes of general interest  pertaining to international politics, the institutions directly or indirectly involved in international relations, trends, debates, publications etc.

The publication of the review INTERNATIONAL STUDIES in two series with different structures meets the readers' and the editors' interest in a vivid publication. It is conceived both as an instrument to be used directly in decision-making in the field of international relations, and as a useful source of information for those who invest, intellectually or emotionally, in this field.

The first issue of the series RESEARCH WORKS comprises four studies which have already been circulating, as we have mentioned, among interested experts and decision-makers. The reactions were numerous and diversified. The Pact of Stability in Europe: Romania's Interests, which appeared in June 1994, arose the interest of diplomats in the first instance, heedful of an informed and unofficial opinion on this subject, Romania's stand concerning that subject seeming less clear at that time. The second material, Romania's Relations with the Republic of Moldova, had a spectacular fate. It generated a passionate internal polemic, which is quite surprising in the case of a scientific text. The Romanian political discourse, after the debates on this study, in late 1994, underwent an obvious change. Romania's Relations with the Republic of Moldova also became a reference material for several European divisions of analysis.

The latest two studies, Nationalism and European Security: Romania's Euro-Atlantic Integration and Nationalism and Its Impact upon the Rule of Law in Romania were unfortunately confirmed in their substance by the failure of the negotiations between Romania and Hungary in March 1995 and, in general, by the weakening of Romania's position in the process of European integration. This is one more reason for decision-makers and politicians to benefit from expertise in the field of international relations, a new argument for the ordinary citizen to understand the dynamics of the international environment of which Romania is a part and to positively influence the decisions upon which his/her future depends.

THE EDITORS

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