Nota Roncea.ro: Dl George Friedman este un respectat analist de intelligence din Statele Unite, fondator al agentiei private de informatii si geopolitica Stratfor Inc, care reuneste fosti ofiteri de informatii ai structurilor de securitate americane. Am avut privilegiul sa fiu primul ziarist roman care a intrat in legatura cu Stratfor si George Friedman, cu care am intretinut o corespondenta, pentru a publica in premiera in presa romana una dintre analizele de inceput ale Agentiei privind Romania si Marea Neagra. Se intampla cu multi ani in urma, la fosta ZIUA (pentru al carei deces trebuie sa le multumim tot… rusilor). Analiza de mai jos este importanta, in primul rand, pentru ca, dincolo de “semnalele” pe care le transmite, reflecta interesul si nivelul de intelegere si cunostinte ale securistilor americani despre Romania, spatiul carpato-danubiano-pontic si istmul ponto-baltic. Unii vor fi dezamagiti. Altii, nu. Pentru mine, dl Friedman este un tip onest. Face parte dintr-unul din acele “grupuri etnice” ajunse in serviciile de informatii americane de care vorbea Larry Watts si despre care am scris amintind de dezinformarile lui Vladimir Tismaneanu de peste Ocean. Insa spre deosebire de acesta din urma, Friedman recunoaste franc, chiar din preambulul analizei de mai jos, ca judeca Romania si intreaga zona si din perspectiva fiului unei familii din Ungaria de supravietuitori ai lagarelor naziste. De altfel, in aceeasi nota de sinceritate isi si incheie relatarea geopolitica: “I leave Romania confused. The Romanians hear things that I am deaf to. It is even at a pitch my Hungarian part can’t hear. I leave now for another nation, Moldova, which has been even more exposed to history, one even stranger and more brutal than Romania’s.” E, si aici o zbarceste din prima, afirmand ca isi continua calatoria pentru a vizita “o alta natiune – Moldova”. Sa vedem ce va urma…
Editor’s note: This is the third installment in a series of special reports that Dr. Friedman will write over the next few weeks as he travels to Turkey, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine and Poland. In this series, he will share his observations of the geopolitical imperatives in each country and conclude with reflections on his journey as a whole and options for the United States.
- Special Series: Geopolitical Journey with George Friedman
- By George Friedman
In school, many of us learned the poem Invictus. It concludes with the line, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” This is a line that a Victorian gentleman might bequeath to an American businessman. It is not a line that resonates in Romania. Nothing in their history tells Romanians that they rule their fate or dominate their soul. Everything in their history is a lesson in how fate masters them or how their very soul is a captive of history. As a nation, Romanians have modest hopes and expectations tempered by their past.
This sensibility is not alien to me. My parents survived the Nazi death camps, returned to Hungary to try to rebuild their lives and then found themselves fleeing the communists. When they arrived in America, their wishes were extraordinarily modest, as I look back on it. They wanted to be safe, to get up in the morning, to go to work, to get paid — to live. They were never under the impression that they were the masters of their fate.
The problem that Romania has is that the world cares about it. More precisely, empires collide where Romania is. The last iteration was the Cold War. Today, at the moment, things seem easier, or at least less desperate, than before. Still, as I discussed in Borderlands, the great powers are sorting themselves out again and therefore Romania is becoming more important to others. It is not clear to me that the Romanians fully appreciate the shift in the geopolitical winds. They think they can hide in Europe, and perhaps they can. But I suspect that history is reaching for Romania again.
Geopolitics and Self-Mutilation

November 16th, 2010
VR
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