ROMANIA’S SECURITY CULTURE – THE HOT POTATO WE SHOULD TALK ABOUT

The Covid-19 crisis has been a flaws' indicator that every society is affected by, including Romania. The health crisis has been toppled by political turmoil and a concerning increase of the gap between the population and the ruling elites. This crisis is founded on disinformation, fake news, and the rise of the far-right. This paper argues that there is a need for political dissidents' direct involvement in promoting security culture and education in the Romanian society of today. The first premise imputed is that the ongoing crisis produced by the pandemic weakens the democratic structure of the society. Being a low-trust society, a vice inherited from the communist era, Romanian citizens tend to be skeptical about the decisions taken by their elected politicians and therefore diminish or exclude serious threats to national and human security. That behavior represents an obstacle to the well-functioning of the state and the promotion of the National Defense Strategy 2020-2024. A strong security culture would imply automatically a tighter relation between security services and the Romanian citizens, leading in the end to an overall better status quo.