Relaţiile comerciale cu Occidentul în concepţia economică a României postbelice. Argumente pentru o nouă perspectivă de studiu

Elena DRAGOMIR

DOI: 10.47743/asui-2021-0032

Abstract: The literature on the history of Romania’s economy during the Cold War is quite scarce and even scarcer if we consider works based on primary archive sources and dealing with Romania’s relations with the West. The mainstream scholarship argues that the economic shortcomings of post-war Romania originated in two sets of causes: the intrinsic flaws of a socialist economic system, of a planned and state-based economy, on the one hand, and the gross incompetence of the communist leadership in terms of economic matters, on the other. Without dismissing such domestic factors, this study pleads for a complementary approach. Assessing Romania’s post-war economic conception and focussing on the country’s relations with the West, the article argues, first, that, throughout the Cold War, Romania employed the same economic policy centred on industrialization and foreign trade. Second, it contends that Romania’s economic foreign policy derived from the country’s conception of domestic economic development. Third, it contests the exclusive role of ideology in shaping up Romania’s economic foreign policy, and brings to the fore the role of pragmatic economic interests in that respect.

Keywords: Romania; communism; economy; trade; the West.