Tom Gallagher--Romania and the European Union--How the Weak Vanquished the Strong.

• Author: Poiana, Sinziana-Elena
• Position: Book review

Tom Gallagher--Romania and the European Union--How the Weak Vanquished the Strong

Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

"Spare no one!"--seems to yell between the lines one of Tom Gallagher's most recent books. Written in 2008 and published one year later, "Romania and the European Union--How the Weak Vanquished the Strong" is undesirably relevant for 2010's Romania. Skilful national politics managed to drive an underprepared Eastern country into the EU counting on its blind eye: the rule of law and anticorruption regulation. How? What did allow for that to happen? What did this situation lead to ultimately? The author discusses all these issues and more throughout the more than 250 pages of the book.

Gallagher's book does not address one audience alone. Anyone that has ever had anything to do with the Romanian political life--be it as an observer alone--will find...