Others have shown that NATO relies on celebrity figures to constitute itself as a progressive military actor (Wright and Bergman Rosamond 2021) or to articulate the ‘remasculinization of the West’ given the increasing tension between Russia and the alliance in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Crimea (2014) (Hedling, Edenborg, and Strand 2022). In this respect, scholars have argued that Western and non-Western militaries use digital media (websites, blogs Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and/or Flickr) to shape public opinion, to build support for military campaigns and/or to recruit individuals (Kuntsman and Stein 2015 Crilley 2016). Inspired by these insights, research regarding the ‘popular culture–world politics continuum’ (Grayson, Davies, and Philpott 2009) has shown that films (Shepherd 2013), cartoons (Hansen 2011), videogames (Ciută 2015) or music videos (Åhäll 2019) enrich our knowledge of global affairs. Rather they are aesthetic representations that disclose an ‘inevitable gap between the represented and its representation’ which ultimately ‘is the very location of politics’ (Bleiker 2001, 510). Roland Bleiker ( 2001) argues that images are not mimetic representations of international politics.
Regardless of their format, images shape, and are shaped by, international politics. Simultaneously comical and alarming, this video raises several questions, especially since civilians and military figures perceive exercises differently: What do visual representations of exercises disclose (and conceal) about military practices? Who participates at these exercises? Where do these exercises take place? What are their implications? To answer these questions, this article builds on feminist and critical military geography to examine the photo album ‘The Romanian Armed Forces – Exercises 2015’, which is available on the website of the Ministry of National Defence (MoND) (Ministry of National Defence n.d.). The then Minister of Defence, Gabriel Leş, clarified that the incident was caused by bad weather conditions and gave reassurances that the landowner would be compensated for the crops destroyed (Digi24 2019). However, they could record a complaint about the damages incurred. A police patrol arrived in the area but told the landowner that they could not stop a NATO exercise. Fearing the worst, the landowner called the national emergency number 112. tanks had crossed an agricultural field by mistake during NATO’s Sabre Guardian Multinational Exercise. Although suggesting otherwise, this was not a military invasion. In the background one could hear a frightened male voice: ‘They are shooting at us!’ (Digi24 2019). In 2019, a video showing tanks taking over a plot of agricultural land circulated in the Romanian mediascape. The article contributes to our geographical knowledge of the intersections between militarism, postsocialism and postcolonialism in feminist and critical military studies. Specifically, it shows that military preparedness animates discourses of Easternness and Westernness, whose coexistence constitutes Romania as a key NATO ally while erasing its past (Socialist) support for peace, anti-militarism, and anti-imperialism. Secondly, it develops our understanding of the spatial construction of militarization. This image helps both the Romanian armed forces and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to present themselves as strong and credible military actors. Specifically, this article shows that exercises envisage the Romanian military as an actor that blends ancient Dacian heroism with technological prowess. Firstly, it explores the role of ethnicity in constituting militarized masculinity within military alliances. While arguing that war preparations are (geo)political practices of power that produce identity, space, and violence, this article opens two new directions in the CMS literature. It draws on feminist and critical military geography to examine geopolitical imaginations that shape, and are shaped, by actors, places, and landscapes of military exercises. This article develops our knowledge of war preparations in Critical Military Studies (CMS) by studying visual representations of the Romanian armed forces’ military training.