ABSTRACT

Moldova pursues a “dual alignment” strategy between two opposing political, economic and cultural blocs: the European Union (EU) and Russia. Why does Chișinău pursue such a strategy, and how (if) can it be sustained? While geopolitics and identity have their own explanatory power, this article brings in local actors – international brokers – playing in the two-level game. The “international broker” links the domestic and international fields by focusing on strategies deployed by local actors embedded in different interface networks. It is that double position in both the domestic and the international fields that allows elites to broker capital outside one field and turn it into policies and power positions in the other. Moldova’s tightrope act is thus explained by looking into how domestic actors strategically navigate within Russian and/or Western fields and in between the two. Russia-embedded President Dodon together with Western-embedded businessman/politician Plahotniuc and then, shortly, with former prime minister Sandu, made for “collective international brokers”: domestic actors with diverging but complementary external networks collaborating and using their respective (educational, political, business or oligarchic) networks to bolster their position in the domestic political arena.

摘要

摩尔多瓦在两个对立的政治、经济和文化集团之间推行“双重结盟”战略：欧盟 (EU) 和俄罗斯。Chișinău 为什么要采取这样的策略，以及如何（如果）能够持续下去？虽然地缘政治和身份有自己的解释力，但本文引入了本地参与者——国际经纪人——参与了两个级别的游戏。“国际经纪人”通过专注于嵌入不同接口网络的本地参与者部署的策略，将国内和国际领域联系起来。正是这种在国内和国际领域的双重地位，使得精英们可以在一个领域之外将资本作为中介，并在另一个领域将其转化为政策和权力地位。因此，摩尔多瓦的走钢丝行为是通过研究国内行为者如何在俄罗斯和/或西方领域以及两者之间进行战略性导航来解释的。嵌入俄罗斯的多东总统与嵌入西方的商人/政治家普拉霍纽克，然后不久，与前总理桑杜一起成为“集体国际经纪人”：具有不同但互补的外部网络的国内行为者合作并利用他们各自的（教育，政治） 、商业或寡头政治）网络以巩固其在国内政治舞台上的地位。