KRAKOWSKIE STUDIA MIĘDZYNARODOWE
KRAKOW INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
XXII: 2025 | e-ISSN 2451-0610 | ISSN 1733-2680
https://doi.org/10.48269/2451-0610-ksm-2025-001
Rafał Czachor
Associate Professor, Jan Wyżykowski University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5929-9719
Permanent Neutrality of Moldova: A Chance, a Threat or a Misunderstanding?
Permanent Neutrality of Moldova: A Chance, a Threat or a Misunderstanding?
Abstract
The following article examines the concept of permanent neutrality in the Republic of Moldova as a potential instrument for ensuring its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national security within the state’s complex geopolitical context. The author presents the theoretical
and legal foundations of the institution of permanent neutrality under international law, reconstructs the main theses of the Moldovan legal debate on the sensibility and effectiveness
of such a status, and discusses selected positions of Moldovan scholars. The article highlights the benefits, limitations, and illusions discussed by Moldovan academics regarding neutrality
in the realities of aggressive great-power politics and unresolved Transnistrian separatism. It concludes that, although neutrality remains a constitutional principle in Moldova, its actual implementation and international legal confirmation seem highly unrealistic or fraught with serious risks under current conditions, requiring a reconsideration of the role of this concept in Moldova’s foreign policy. In conclusion, Moldova should not view its international legal status as a means to resolve its sovereignty and territorial integrity issues.
Key words: Moldova, Moldovan foreign and security policy, security problems of Eastern Europe, permanent neutrality of a state, legal aspects of national security.