Power Politics and Integration into Western Institutions: The Placement of Embassies for Romania and Bulgaria

Abstract

Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union in January 2007 and they share many characteristics. In this work, we will investigate the placement of embassies for the two countries to determine if the placement of embassies seems to be influences by the desire to integrate into Western European institutions or is largely interested in realist concerns. In this analysis, the authors perform logistical regressions on the placement of embassies for 168 countries. The findings illustrate that there is little reason to believe that Romania and Bulgaria have allocated embassies based upon the need to integrate themselves politically into the EU and NATO. The evidence seems to indicate that both countries allocate embassies based upon realist principles and still have embassies in countries as an artifact of their Communist legacies.

Keywords: Embassies, power, EU, NATO, econometrics, integration, Bulgaria, Romania