A FAUSTIAN PACT: THE REGIME OF TRUTH WITHIN NATIONAL SECURITY DOCUMENTS IN ROMANIA AND GERMANY

Author(s): Iulian DICULESCU-BLEBEA
Publication name: Romanian Intelligence Studies Review
Publisher name: Mihai Viteazul National Intelligence Academy
Publication type: Journal article
Publication date: December 31, 2018
Pagination:
Issue/ Volume: 19-20/2018
DOI:

Abstract
The main purpose here is to open an academic door towards a very inciting and
promising nexus, to launch an invitation to scholarly “occupy” the common niche of truth and
security – which appear to become increasingly relevant, especially against the background of
the currently re-emerging ideas and debates around post-, hybrid-, fake- and many others alike.
This study focuses on how the idea of (a crisis of) the regime of truth is addressed, as a whole or
through some of its core elements, in a series of strategic documents. It investigates whether
and how it is framed as a matter of security, showing the official approaches in which the
Romanian and German authorities frame and tackle the problem in the particular instances
given by their respective security strategies. The hermeneutical approach of these documents,
based on a Foucauldian conceptual toolbox and his archaeological approach for the
„questioning of the document”, with accent on their specific perceptions and understandings, on
their actual and latent content, indicates how and in what a surprisingly extensive manner
these strategies address issues related to the core elements of a regime of truth. Although the
selected security strategies approach the idea of truth in an indirect and rather implicit
manner, they stand nevertheless into the matter through a consistent use of semantical,
ideatical or contextual substitutes, and also through narratives on related problems. These
official documents contain an impressive body of statements and practices that concern the
dynamics by which truth related issues are addressed (understood, framed and managed)
through security ideas and processes within the Romanian and German milieus.

Keywords: (regime of) truth, security, crisis, order, rules, normalcy,
Romania, Germany.

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