Romania took hold of my heart in 2015 and since then has consumed my mind and soul. As with any genuine commitment, my relationship with this beautiful, complex country has grown and deepened over time as I have learned of its many tragedies, as well as its many triumphs. I have surrendered myself to Romania. [...] As I continue my Romanian journey, I marvel over the resiliency and fortitude of the people. I am fortunate to have developed close relationships, familial in many ways, with many Romanians. And I am eternally grateful to have been granted a Fulbright and honored to become part of this amazing community.
What Do Romanians Think about Defense Spending? Results from a Survey Experiment
On Wednesday, May 15, U.S. Fulbright Researcher Eoin Lazaridis Power will be giving a talk titled “What Do Romanians Think about Defense Spending? Results from a Survey Experiment.” Organized by ICUB, the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest, the event will take place in the Council Room, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work (Schitu Măgureanu 9) from 18:30 to 20:00.
About the event: When countries buy defense equipment, they often require foreign suppliers to re-invest in the buying country’s economy – in Romania, the Piranha V infantry fighting vehicle, manufactured in a joint venture with Uzina Mecanică București, is a good example. These requirements – known as offsets – are commonly thought to increase popular support for costly defense transactions, by promising to bring economic benefits, too. But this proposition has rarely – if ever – been empirically tested, and in general political science has largely ignored offsets. Eoin presents the results of a survey experiment conducted in Romania that addresses this, and other, questions: how do offsets affect public opinion about defense spending? How do Romanians view tradeoffs between security and economic development? With the war in Ukraine, ongoing multi-billion-dollar investments in defense modernization, and a pledge to spend 2.5% of GDP on defense, these issues have never been more relevant.
Eoin Lazaridis Power is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Texas at Austin. For the 2023-2024 academic year, he is a Fulbright Research fellow at ICUB. His dissertation is on the political economy of defense and maritime security institutions in Europe; other research interests include international financial regulation and field experiments, with a regional focus on Eastern Europe. He holds a BA in political science and philosophy from Middlebury College, and an MA in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Michigan.
The moderator of the event will be Professor Marian Zulean, PhD.