The geo-political experts pointed out the fact that "simultaneously with the phenomenon of globalization, the complementary and contradictory phenomenon of the "ethno-political proliferation" occurs, namely the revival of the "ethnic policies" which push to "segregation", to enclaves, to ethnocratism, ethno-political legislations, such as the "law of the state of the Hungarians".The sociologist Ilie Badescu questions, together with A. D. Smith, why processes like "the ethnic fragmentation" and "the awakening of the separatist nationalism" are repeated with such strength.

Which is their meaning nowadays and why the flames of nationalism have broken out again now, when 60 years have elapsed from their ignition in the Gotterdammerung of the Third Reich"? To these common questions, respectively to one and the same "challenge", the answers of the two scientists are partially common, but they also include different interpretations. While A. D. Smith summarizes "the great global deconstruction" through the three sub-processes "the ethnicist reawakening", "the crisis of the national state" and the "super- or over-national" trend, Ilie Badescu and his co-workers, in the volume "Geo-politics, Integration, Globalization", analyze the whole complex of favorable elements, out of which we mention: the proliferation of the federalist movements and of the regionalist ones – summarized by slogans such as "The Europe of the Regions" or "The Europe of the Ethnicities"; compromises when applying the national principle of the socio-political equality of all citizens before the law and its substitution with the ethnocratic principle of the ethno-political distinction of an ethnic group before the law; the attention given to "minorities" and not to "majorities"; the debates referring to nation and nationalism ("the civic nation", the "ethnic nation", to the "good" nationalism, of the Western type and the "bad’ nationalism of the Eastern type); the reactivation of the pan-ideas, especially of the Mitteleuropa.

In this context, a "ghost" is haunting the Romanian public life, at the beginning of the XXI century and of the III millennium, the autonomy of the so-called Territory of the Secui.

In a period when the efforts of the majority of the Romanians are directed towards the carrying out of the parameters established for the accession, respectively for the integration into the European Union, the public opinion acknowledged the new initiative of the radical wing of the Hungarians from Romania – organized into the Hungarian Civic Union and the Secui National Council – of drawing up, submitting for debate and approval of the Romanian Parliament of the Statute of the Autonomy of the Secui Territory.

Due to the fact that many of the participants to the public debates that take place and will take place on the topic of the autonomy of the Secui Territory, including those called to pronounce their opinion regarding this project, do not have the necessary information about a sensitive and, at the same time very important issue, because of its long-term implications for the destiny of the inhabitants of the aimed territory as well as for the destiny of all the Romanians, we are trying to compensate for this lack, even partially, by publishing the present volume.

The work "Tendencies to transform a Romanian Space into an Enclave – Covasna – Harghita" is made up of several studies referring to the specific aspects of the inter-community relations in Covasna and Harghita, from the perspective of the Romanian civil society, the discourse and the public behavior towards "the other" of the leaders of the "majority minority" from Covasna and Harghita, the influence of the mass media on the cultural integration, domination or segregation, the communication, the reconciliation and the peaceful living together in the vision of the Romanian civil society in this area, the smaller Romanian communities in Covasna and Harhghita – challenges, opportunities and their survival perspectives, as well as to the project of the statute of the Secui Territory autonomy. At the end of the volume, an important number of annexes are presented, which include documents regarding the socio-ethnic and demographic reality from Covasna and Harghita and the review of the volume "The Democratic Union of the Hungarians in Romania and the Romanian Contemporary Society" by Petre Turlea, edited at the Publishing House - Romania Pur si Simplu, Bucharest 2003. Due to the fact that, while the work was in course of being finalized, a debate took place in the House of Deputies on the project of the Statute of the Secui Territory Autonomy, the contents of these debates and the result of the vote for this documents are presented in an Annex.

The main conclusions formulated in the above mentioned studies are the result of the research work carried out for finalizing the PhD thesis with the subject "Ethnic and Confessional Structures in the Counties Covasna and Harghita" presented at the Sociology and Social Assistance Faculty of the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, in December 2002, under the scientific guidance of the University Professor Dr. Traian Rotariu, work that is going to be published in the ensuing period.

The starting point was the belief that only a good knowledge of the specific problems from the Counties Covasna and Harghita, in their historical evolution and whole complexity shall allow the elimination of certain cliches and preconceived ideas still circulating in the specialty literature and in mass media and shall be able to form the basis of certain well-thought decisions, adopted for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the area and of Romania.

The book intends to present the difference between the autonomy on ethnic de jure criteria, which the leaders of the Hungarian population from Romania intend to establish and the autonomy from the Counties Covasna and Harghita already established in its most important components (administrative, cultural, economic, etc.).

This way, one could have an image, as close to the reality as possible, about the condition and the actual state of the Romanian and Hungarian communities from the only two counties of Romania where the Romanians are a minority and the Hungarians are a majority, by observing which of the citizens of those communities are practically deprived of certain rights today and which of them need a positive discrimination in order to be able to preserve and to affirm their identity.

The work does not question the rights gained by the Hungarian population from Romania after December 1989, but it intends to point out again ‘the perverse effects that result from the reversed report existing in the counties Covasna and Harghita, between the majority and the minority and that, finally, leads to the unnatural fact of the assimilation of the majority of the country by the minority in an area located in the heart of Romania.

While understanding the natural claim of the Hungarians from Transilvania, generally, and of the those from the intra-Carpathic bow, especially their demand of keeping and affirming their identity, as well as their concerns towards the provocations of the future (first of all, towards the decrease in the number of the Hungarian population), we shall point out that it is not the lack of autonomy that is the cause of the problems which the Hungarians from Romania are facing. As a matter of fact, by the means of the autonomy project of the Secui Territory there is not intended to obtain more rights for the Hungarians, but it is pursued "the creation of the material basis for the Hungarian Ethnic Group".
Compared to the nationalism of the "national construction" and that of the "colonial emancipation" – we are here in front of the nationalism of the "ethnic and linguistic policies" which is negative and dissolving. The linguistic nationalism from Harghita and Covasna is one that declares the respective space as ethnic territory. The great danger of these "linguistic nationalisms" is to tear "enclaves", "territories" from the unity of the national territory, which to consider "ethnicity spaces", "ethnic territories", which obviously leads to the utilization of the "ethnic policies" as "secessionist policies". 
 

The information included in the work persuade as to the fact that in the counties Covasna and Harghita there is autonomy on ethnic criteria and it has all the prerequisites that, at the same time with the process of decentralization and increase of the local autonomy, it could lead to the establishment of an ethnic enclave, if the Romanian state is not going to find proper modalities to stop this evolution.

All those presented in the work prove without doubt the fact that, in the situation in which the Hungarian minority in the area is politically but also economically and culturally dominant, the necessity to benefit from a legal protection disappears. In these conditions, those who need protection in order to preserve and affirm at the same time their ethnic identity are the Romanians and not the Hungarians from the counties where they are a majority.

Because in all the post-December Governments, whether it was or not part of the Government, UDMR succeeded to fulfill step by step their objectives regarding the establishment of the Country of the Secui, conceived in the form it was conceived before the 1st of December 1918, it is high time for the Romanian state to exercise its authority in this space located in the heart of Romania and to ensure the legislative, institutional and logistic framework for the elimination of these outdated practices and the provision of a climate of interethnic cohabitation in consensus with the European legislation and practice.

A future strategy in this sense, shall have to include measures such as: the increase of the role of the sate under the new conditions; rediscovery and revival of the community identity feeling; guiding the actions towards the present and the future; enhancing self-confidence; provision of the framework of professional and material achievement for the Romanian young people in their country; emphasizing the valences of the national solidarity of the Romanians from all the historical regions of Romania, of the Romanians in the neighboring countries, as well as of those who are in the Diaspora.