Miner, Michael MPrevelakis, Nicolas NOchis, Karina Adriana2026-10-1320262026-10-132026Ochis, Karina Adriana. 2026. Neo-Convergence under Conditions of Polycrisis: Rethinking Convergence in the European Union through the Romanian Case.. Masters Thesis, Harvard University Division of Continuing Education.32905269https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42759939Under conditions of polycrisis — the compound, reinforcing external shocks of the post-2022 period — the European Union has come under sustained stress that the inherited concept of convergence is only partially equipped to absorb. Convergence had largely been studied and developed under conditions of relative stability; the reviewed scholarship therefore offers a limited account of what convergence becomes under sustained external pressure, limited attention to the peripheral member states most exposed to divergence, and limited qualitative insight into the purposes and meanings of convergence. This study addresses that threefold gap through the research question: how do U.S. trade policy and Russia’s war policy influence convergence in the European Union? The study adopts a mixed-methods design weighted toward the qualitative component through the single case of Romania. The primary data originate from ten expert interviews with senior figures across Romanian public life, analyzed through grounded theory collected through an original semi-structured instrument. The study proposes three original contributions: the Neo-Convergence model, which recasts convergence as a crisis-activated, multidimensional, and reciprocal mode; the Technological Clubs framework, which reclassifies member states by command over technology into four clubs; and governance-mediated convergence, which identifies domestic governance capacity as the transmission through which external pressure is integrated as convergence or divergence, reframing Romania from a peripheral member state to a strategic frontier.application/pdfenConvergenceEuropean UnionGovernanceInstitutional EconomicsPolycrisesStatecraftPolitical scienceInternational relationsEconomic theoryThesis or Dissertation2026-10-130009-0006-4097-8179