Sound Bite
Since Romania entered the EU, the murky territorial questions on her northeastern border have started to receive more attention. What are Moldova, Bassarabia, and Transnistria; and how did they wind up suspended between Romania and Russia?
About the Author
Marcel Mitrasca, a scholar of diplomatic history, is fluent in Japanese, Romanian, French and English. Currently he is a visiting scholar at the Aoyama Gakuin University of Tokyo, Japan. He began his work on this topic while at Babes-Bolyai University in Romania. This is his first book-length work in English.
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About the Book
Since Romania entered the EU, the murky territorial questions on her northeastern border have started to receive more attention. What are Moldova, Bassarabia, and Transnistria; and how did they wind up suspended between Romania...
Since Romania entered the EU, the murky territorial questions on her northeastern border have started to receive more attention. What are Moldova, Bassarabia, and Transnistria; and how did they wind up suspended between Romania and Russia?
With Wilson's famous 14 points, after the First World War, the nationality principle was first upheld as the basis for the creation of new states and for the recombining portions of existing states. How did the interpretation of the principle change in the ensuing years; how consistently was it applied; and in whose interests?
This book analyses the problem of the Bessarabian Treaty, and offers a glimpse of Romanian foreign policy in the 1920's. Under the Treaty, the de facto unification of Bessarabia with Romania was officially recognized - a great success for Romania. Why, then, did that territory end up under Soviet control (in the "Republic of Moldavia")?
Mitrasca has sifted through unpublished documents from the national archives of Japan Romania, Great Britain, France and Italy, and presents excerpts to back up his analysis of diplomatic maneuvering between the World Wars. What could Romania's territorial refinements have mattered to Japan ? What was Italy s interest? And why was the United States the only Great power to steadfastly refuse to acknowledge Bessarabia 's union with Romania ? Mitrasca pieces together the evidence, analyzing the overt and covert negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference and in embassies around the world, and traces the evolving situation that in the end produced a result quite different from what was apparently intended in 1920.
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Library Journal, November 1, 2002 | More »
Library Journal, November 1, 2002
According to Mitrasca, Romania’s foreign policy in the 1920s foreshadows the politics of globalization in the late 20th and 21st centuries. Mitrasca, a scholar of diplomatic history affiliated with both Aoyama Gakuin University of Tokyo and Babes-Bolyai University in Romania, examines the Bessarabian Treaty, an agreement concluded at the end of World War I in accord with Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points that would officially give Romania control of Moldova (Bessarabia). Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan all signed this treaty with Romania. However, Japan refused to ratify it, and the United States also refused to acknowledge it, allowing the Soviet Union to take control of this geographically strategic land. Mitrasca conducted extensive research of unpublished documents from the national archives of Japan, Romania, Great Britain, France, and Italy to explore why the treaty was never enforced, what was at stake for each of the “Great Power” nations, and how a small country like Romania dealt with those more powerful countries that decided its fate. The result of his first full-length book in English is a thorough work about an often neglected subject targeted toward historians. Recommended for academic libraries.
Choice
Focusing primarily on the Great Powers’ struggle surrounding the 1920 Bessarabian Treaty, this is a first-class research study presented within a broad historical context. Mitrasca is well acquainted with all the previous literature on the subject and reviews it objectively, pointing out the differences of opinion. He fully explains the US position (strongly favoring Russia) and gives Romanian diplomacy poor grades, noting that sometimes it tended to be incomprehensibly slow when quick action seemed necessary. So too, the domestic politics of the Romanian government were often unhelpful. Entirely new and original and based on research o f the Tokyo Foreign Ministry archives is the extended presentation of the Japanese rationale for vacillating and ultimately failing to ratify the treaty, hereby killing it. The author reveals for the first time how Japanese interests in fishing rights along the Russian Far East coast finally tipped the scales against ratification, despite pressure from Europe. This is by far the best one-volume presentation for the diplomatic side of the Bessarabian Question as it emerged at the end of WW I; at the same time it is a bibliographical mine for further study. A helpful historical and diplomatic chronology, several pages long, is included. Recommended for general readers and upper-division undergraduates through professionals.
L. K. D. Kristof, emeritus, Portland State University.
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Pages 448
Year: 2002
LC Classification: D651.B4 M55
Dewey code: 940.3'22
BISAC: POL000000
BISAC: HIS027090
Soft Cover
ISBN: 978-1-892941-86-2
Price: USD 33.00
Hard Cover
ISBN: 978-1-892941-87-9
Price: USD 45.00
Ebook
ISBN: 978-0-87586-184-5
Price: USD 45.00
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