Romania’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East during the Cold War: The Communist Leadership’s Quest for Legitimacy and the Origin of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s Wish to Win the Nobel Peace Prize
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Titel:
Romania’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East during the Cold War: The Communist Leadership’s Quest for Legitimacy and the Origin of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s Wish to Win the Nobel Peace Prize
Beschreibung:
<jats:p>There are times when small nations can make “great history,” and after 1964 Romania made
such a history for a decade or so. The communist government in Bucharest—and to a far lesser
extent the Romanian people—benefited from the international perception that its foreign policy
was able to generate in the specific environment of the Cold War. The honors with which Nicolae
Ceaușescu was received everywhere in the civilized world were the most visible expression of
this state of affairs. A key dimension of the Romanian foreign policy was its focus on the crisis
in the Middle East. The Bucharest leadership was widely praised for intermediating the contacts
between Israel and Egypt, which ultimately led to the signing of the 1978 Camp David Accords.
The reasons behind this foreign policy of the Bucharest regime are investigated in-depth, as
the Romanian leaders themselves surprisingly stated that they were not mediators in that crisis,
while investing a great deal of energy and resources in finding a solution to it. One interesting
explanation arose from the archives of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which ascribes
Ceaușescu’s efforts in the Middle East to the elusive dream of gaining the international recogni tion brought by the Nobel Peace Prize.</jats:p>