When Sovereignty Means Everything: Sovereignty Weaponization and the Limits of EU Anchoring in Romania and Moldova, 2022–2026

Sovereignty is one of the oldest concepts in the political lexicon and, as of 2025, one of the most thoroughly abused. This thesis examines the simultaneous weaponization of sovereignty rhetoric by competing actors in Romania and Moldova between 2022 and 2026, asking how EU integration status shapes a state's capacity to withstand (or inadvertently fuel) that contestation. Through a structured focused comparison, the analysis finds that EU membership anchors sovereignty against external denial while paradoxically generating the conditions for a sovereignty-against-Europe backlash, as Romania's Georgescu affair vividly demonstrated. EU candidacy, meanwhile, enables a more coherent government-level resistance than structural indicators would predict, but leaves subnational and bilateral vulnerabilities dangerously exposed. The thesis introduces the concept of ‘sovereignty weaponization’, the deliberate deployment of sovereignty rhetoric in ways structurally disconnected from the actor's actual sovereignty-protecting behavior, and traces its recursive logic across both cases. When pro-European governments, illiberal opposition movements, and Russian-backed networks all invoke sovereignty simultaneously in contradictory directions, the concept ceases to function as a political shield. The comparative finding is that neither membership nor candidacy fully resolves this problem, suggesting the EU's own account of its sovereignty-protective function requires serious theoretical revision.