This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests.
Harry Halem is a PhD candidate in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Senior Fellow at Yorktown Institute, and a Senior Fellow in Defense at the London-based Policy Exchange. His dissertation focuses on strategic assessment failures and the character of warfare, with a particular emphasis on the Ukraine war. His other research interests include defense-industrial policy, the intellectual history of operational art, and naval strategy. He holds an MA (Hons) in International Relations and Philosophy from the University of St Andrews, and an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics.
After the Cold War, the Romanian government chose to slim down its sizeable defense industry, but it essentially maintained its state-backed structure, personnel, and management, thus producing a thoroughly inefficient system. Today, Romania retains a proclivity to purchase Western, and particularly American, defense equipment; but it has often neglected any thorough assessments of life cycle costs or real force design considerations.
