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Abstract: Starting from an exploratory analysis of the NATO London Summit Declaration, beyond the specific context and circumstances of the reunion itself, this paper will try to decipher and decode its perceived key messaging. The rationale behind that is the essential role of strategic communication, especially in a context in which some prior statements and declarations had clearly generated controversies and damaged to some extent NATO 's credibility, sense of unity and solidarity. Naturally, the analysis of the nine points Declaration of the Summit is extended to the direct impact and implications for Romania's strategic context.
Keywords: reassurance, key messages, challenges and threats, security impact and implications
The well-known, extensively mediated and formalized outcome of NATO London Summit organized in the capital of the United Kingdom, between 03rd and 04th December 2019, in North Atlantic Council format, is the common declaration issued by NATO member states' leaders. Based on that, in the first part of this paper we will try, after some preliminary scene setting and contextualized analysis, to delineate the essential issues covered in the content of the 9 point post-Summit Declaration, and the subsequent key messages. It should be mentioned from the beginning that the following lines represent a personal interpretation which does not represent and does not necessarily reflect in any way the official position of the Defense Staff or any other Romanian Ministry of Defense organizational entities. Also, in the second part, we will be focused on the relevance of those direct, further derived, or inferred implications for Romania's strategic context and, willy-nilly on some conclusions and takeaways.
Anyway, instead of starting abruptly and jumping directly into the issue itself, we decided to use an initial setting of the scene, since we consider it crucial for understanding the context and being aware of the Summit's importance in the exceptional circumstances in which it took place.
INTRODUCTION
First of all, in the context of the London Summit, we do believe that the location is important and represents a symbol and a statement by itself due to the fact that, historically speaking, London60 used to be the first home of NATO's Headquarters (HQ) during the initial two years, before being temporarily moved to Paris and finally to Brussels. Thus, the key message...