Amid ongoing political, economic, and digital transformations, soft power and nation branding have emerged as strategic resources shaping international perceptions and national competitiveness. The article examines the relationship between soft power and nation brand value, analysing whether attraction-based influence can be translated into measurable economic outcomes at the country level. The study combines a qualitative literature review with a conceptual framework and a quantitative empirical analysis using data from the top 20 countries in the Global Soft Power Index 2025. The empirical findings reveal a statistically significant positive relationship between soft power and nation brand value. The results remain robust after controlling for economic size by including GDP as a control variable, suggesting that the observed relationship cannot be explained solely by differences in economic scale. The article proposes a conceptual framework in which soft power functions as a source of national attractiveness, the nation brand represents the perceptual output, and nation brand value constitutes the measurable economic outcome. The study highlights the strategic importance of soft power in strengthening national brands and supports integrating soft power considerations into nation-branding strategies and public policy design.
Alcohol consumption is a prominent feature of everyday social life in the Republic of Moldova, yet empirical evidence on how alcohol is consumed and which population groups are most exposed to risky drinking remains limited. Using nationally representative data from the 2021 WHO STEPwise approach to Surveillance (STEPS) survey (N = 4,097 adults aged 18–69 years), this study examines patterns of alcohol consumption and the prevalence and determinants of heavy episodic drinking. Drinking patterns were described using survey-weighted estimates, and associations with heavy episodic drinking (six or more drinks on one occasion in the previous 30 days) were assessed using complex-sample logistic regression models. Alcohol consumption is common in the adult population, with 76% of past-year drinkers reporting alcohol use in the previous 30 days. Heavy episodic drinking was reported by 22% of current drinkers and was considerably more common among men than among women. Drinking patterns also differed across social and regional groups. In the adjusted analysis, heavy episodic drinking remained strongly associated with male sex, region of residence, smoking, and recent consumption of unrecorded alcohol. The findings suggest that alcohol-related risks in Moldova are shaped less by the prevalence of drinking itself than by the social and behavioural contexts in which alcohol is consumed.
The paper analyses the impact of the geopolitical conflict in the Middle East on the energy security of the European Union (EU) in the context of efforts to reduce dependence on Russian energy resources following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the subsequent adoption of European sanctions against the Russian Federation. In this context, the EU diversified its supply sources by increasing imports of liquefied natural gas and oil from countries such as Qatar, while also strengthening energy relations with suppliers in the Middle East and other regions. However, the escalation of regional tensions and the risks to maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz create new vulnerabilities for the European energy market and the stability of energy prices. The research is based on the hypothesis that the European Union has not eliminated the geopolitical vulnerability of its energy security but has instead transferred it to new external dependencies and trade routes exposed to geopolitical instability. The methodology combines qualitative analysis of European energy policies, particularly the European Green Deal and REPowerEU, with quantitative analysis of EU energy trade flows using COMEXT data. The study aims to assess the extent to which current European policies are sufficient to strengthen strategic energy autonomy and highlights the need to accelerate investments in renewable energy, green hydrogen, storage infrastructure, and nuclear energy as complementary solutions for reducing the European Union’s external vulnerabilities.
An economy’s total budget revenue is a key variable for the efficient design and conduct of economic policy and for maintaining fiscal and debt sustainability. Following a brief analysis of the notion of the buoyancy of total budget revenues and its estimation, the paper estimates the buoyancy of total revenues in the Moldovan economy using quarterly data on total budget revenues and Gross Domestic Product for the period from the first quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2025, thereby providing updated country-specific evidence based on high-frequency data. The empirical work reported in the paper suggests that the buoyancy of total budget revenues in Moldova’s economy is close to 1.06. The paper then forecasts the medium-term evolution of total budget revenues using quarterly Gross Domestic Product forecasts from an estimated time series model. The total revenue forecasts are lower than the Ministry of Finance’s latest forecasts. The paper suggests regularly updating the buoyancy estimate and revenue forecasts for both monitoring and forecasting purposes.
This study analyzes the relationships between the economic intensity of agricultural inputs, the economic productivity of land, and economic sustainability in selected European countries, using EUROSTAT data for the period 2014–2025. The comparative analysis was conducted for two sub-periods, 2014–2019 and 2020–2025, in the context of transformations driven by agricultural market volatility, rising input costs, and the energy crisis. The research methodology is based on derived indicators constructed using the Economic Accounts for Agriculture: the economic sustainability indicator (ESI), the land productivity indicator (LPI), and the input intensity indicator (III). The statistical analysis included descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The results highlight the existence of significant structural differences between the agricultural systems analyzed. The positive correlation between the variation in economic input intensity and the variation in economic land productivity (r = 0.831) indicates that economic intensification is associated with increased agricultural productivity. In contrast, the negative correlation between the variation in economic intensity and the variation in economic sustainability (r = -0.593) suggests that an increase in intermediate consumption does not automatically lead to improved economic performance. Romania recorded simultaneous increases in land productivity (+35.0%) and economic sustainability (+10.4%), against a backdrop of a moderate intensification of input use (+23.5%). The results underscore the importance of an integrated assessment of the relationships between economic intensification, agricultural productivity, and economic sustainability in European agriculture.
