Articles on Issue Theme
Octavian-Dragomir JORA
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Penned in an era of solid empires, declared confrontations and solemn reconciliations, Tolstoy’s War and Peace started from a premise that late modernity has twisted to the point of caricature: that “war” and “peace” are distinct, recognizable (e)states, with clear moral thresholds and a memory of shame. For him, war is a total experience, which melts destinies, overturns hierarchies and exposes vanities. And peace is a fragile but intelligible aspiration, linked to meaning and duty, not to statistics or ratings. Rereading it today is no longer just a history exercise, but a vocabulary test: how much do these two words still signify to us, when we live in a present that uses them as labels on boxes? Between the “Napoleon” depicted by Tolstoy and today’s “hybrids” (Trump’s step twins Department of War and Board of Peace), the difference is not only one of technology, but of consciousness: where the novel sees the consequences, the present jumps straight to conclusions. And when you confuse war with a news scroll and peace with a commercial break, you lose the very tool for discerning the world.
WAR (DEPARTMENT OF) AND PEACE (BOARD OF) [RĂZBOI (MINISTERUL DE) ŞI PACE (CONSILIUL PENTRU)]
Tudor Constantin BĂLAN
University of Oxford
Across modern history, the evolution of individual freedoms has often appeared to follow a long-term trajectory of progress, similarly to the expansion of industrial economies and modern political institutions. Yet, much like economic development, the historical dynamics of rights and liberties have rarely been linear or irreversible, suggesting the existence of broader “cycles of freedom”.
Keywords: cycles of freedom, democratic backsliding, civil liberties, political rights, authoritarianism, liberalism, institutional development, Great Britain, United States, Russia
JEL: N40, N43, N44, P16, Z18
Cycles of Freedom: Are Our Rights Today Permanently Secured, or Are We in a Transitional Phase? The Cases of Great Britain, the United States, and Russia
Marius-Cristian PANĂ
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Adela BĂLAN
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
This article examines the relationship between economic freedom and the level of prosperity at the international level, offering a comparative perspective on eight representative economies (2010-2023). Using empirical data and composite indices developed by the Heritage Foundation and the Fraser Institute, the study observes the major pillars that influence macroeconomic performance.
Keywords: economic freedom, economic development, economic institutions, Economic Freedom Index (EFI), Human Development Index (HDI), Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), economic prosperity
JEL: D72, E02, O11, O43, P14, P16
Economic Freedom and Prosperity: A Comparative Analysis of Welfare Determinants at the International Level
Ana Octavia ALBU
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
This paper examines how promotions and holidays affect forecasting risk in perishable food retail. Using daily sales data from the Corporación Favorita dataset, the study analyses three stores and ten perishable product families during 2016. The focus is on over-forecast errors, defined as cases in which predicted demand exceeds actual sales and may therefore create excess inventory.
Keywords: perishable food retail, demand forecasting, machine learning, over-forecasting, food waste
JEL: C53, L81, Q18, Q56
When Accurate Forecasts Still Produce Waste: Demand Shocks and Over-Forecasting Risk in Food Retail
Adrian-Ioan DAMOC
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
The increasingly fragmented and competitive multipolar system has revived the logic of geopolitical realism and positional power politics. Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, escalating tensions in the Indo-Pacific, and renewed instability in the Middle East, recent American military actions targeting Iran and Venezuela reveal a broader attempt by the US to redefine its global strategic role.
Keywords: geopolitical realism, great-power competition, geoeconomics, strategic rivalry, energy security, Iran, Venezuela, United States, China, Russia, NATO, multipolarity, Indo-Pacific, Middle East, strategic credibility
JEL: F51, F52, F59, H56, P16, Q34
The Persian Pivot and the Reconfiguration of Geopolitical Realism: Iran and Venezuela in Strategic Competition among the United States, China, and Russia
Emmanuel Olusegun STOBER
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
The accelerating militarization of diplomacy in the Gulf has transformed coercion into the dominant grammar of regional interaction. The escalating tensions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, retaliatory strikes, and mounting risks to energy markets and maritime trade reveal the strategic logic and limitations of the contemporary “strike-forward” approach pursued by the US and Israel.
Keywords: coercive diplomacy, Gulf security, Iran nuclear program, strike-forward strategy, escalation management, deterrence, Middle East geopolitics, middle powers, maritime security, geoeconomics, regional stability, strategic competition, security architecture
JEL: F51, F52, F53, F59, H56, Q34
Coercive Diplomacy in the Gulf and the Limits of the Strike-Forward Strategy: Toward a Middle-Power Coalition for Regional Stability
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Octavian-Dragomir JORA
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Tudor Constantin BĂLAN
University of Oxford
Marius-Cristian PANĂ
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Adela BĂLAN
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Ana Octavia ALBU
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Adrian-Ioan DAMOC
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Emmanuel Olusegun STOBER
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
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