Dan Stoenescu (born 4 November 1980) is a Romanian career diplomat, political scientist and ambassador. He was a minister in the technocratic government of Prime Minister Dacian Cioloș. He is a specialist in international relations, the Arab World and migration. He is interested in the protection of the rights of the Romanian diaspora and in the preservation of the language and culture of ethnic Romanians abroad.
Stoenescu is fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, English, Portuguese, Romanian, and has notions of Arabic and Urdu.
He received a bachelor's degree in international studies from Austin College, in Sherman, Texas, in 2003, a master of arts degree in globalization and development from Warwick University in Great Britain in 2005, a graduate diploma in forced migration and refugee studies from the American University in Cairo in 2006, and a PhD in political science from the University of Bucharest in 2009, where he wrote his dissertation on modern Arab nationalism and Islamic identity after 1987. He followed specializations at the European Security and Defence College in Brussels, Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael in the Hague, Matías Romero Institute in Mexico City and Saifi Institute for Arabic Language in Beirut.
Stoenescu entered the Romanian foreign service in 2007. He was Minister-delegate for Romanians abroad from 17 November 2015 to 7 July 2016, in the government of technocrats, led by Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos. Previously, he had diplomatic postings in Madrid and Beirut and was president of EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture) in Lebanon for two consecutive mandate as a representative of the Romanian Cultural Institute.
Between 2009–10 he worked in the Department on Policies for the Relationship with Romanians Abroad.
Starting in September 2015 he was responsible for the Romanian schools in Spain as First Secretary at the Romanian Embassy in Spain.
He previously lived in Egypt when he worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) offices in Cairo. Dan Stoenescu also worked as a journalist for various newspapers and magazines in Romania, United States, UK, Egypt, Lebanon, and the Republic of Moldova. He was involved in Egypt with non-governmental organizations such as African Hope, in the United States he volunteered for the Center for the Survivors of Torture as well as in Central America for El Salvador's Siglo XXIII.
Between 2005 and 2009 he was a lecturer in the political science department at the University of Bucharest, and thereafter at the Romanian Diplomatic Institute.
In 2000, he established the Worldwide Romanians Youth League (Liga Tinerilor Români de Pretutindeni) and later on the Center for Democratic Education Romania.
In 2017, Rotary International District 2241 Romania-Republic of Moldova awarded him the highest Rotary award, the Paul Harris Fellow Award, for his support to Romanians abroad and to the international projects of the Rotary Foundation. He also received in 2019 an award from the Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society for supporting the cause of Romanians in the Balkans on the occasion of the 140th anniversary from the founding of this society.
During his academic career, he was awarded many honors and distinctions such as the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, Ford Foundation scholarship, First Phi Theta Kappa All-California Academic Team, Presbyterian Church USA Samuel Roberson award, and distinctions from California governor Gray Davis, assembly member Wilma Chan, and senator Don Perata.
The mandate of the minister delegate brought many changes and innovations in terms of political and diplomatic measures and demarches in the relation of the Romanian government with the Romanian communities abroad. Amongst the first measures taken in the beginning of the mandate were transparency initiatives such as publication of the financed projects and the establishment of an online platform for projects.
At the beginning of his term, Stoenescu announced a new direction for Romanian institutions in offering new business and investment opportunities using European funds for Romanians of the diaspora who wish to return home. Therefore, the Ministry of European Funds and the Department Policies for the Relation with Romanians Abroad launched, in October 2016, a 30 million euro program called "Diaspora Start-up", as part of the Human Capital Operational Program (POCU) 2014–2020. The program offered a financing line for diaspora Romanians who returned recently and intend to open a business in an urban area in Romania. It is a program exclusively for developing entrepreneurship and establishing new businesses.
Another innovative measure was the launching of the AgroDiaspora program meant to inform Romanians living abroad about the investment opportunities in the Romanian agriculture available through accessing European funds. In order to develop entrepreneurial skills within the Diaspora, a new online program called "Worldwide Romanian Entrepreneurs" was launched offering hundreds of free scholarships.
To consolidate the cultural links between Romania and its kin ethnic groups in the near abroad, a series of demarches were started in order to establish Romanian Information Centers in Bălți (Republic of Moldova), Izmail (Ukraine) and Solotvyno (Ukraine). The Romanian Information Centers in Bălți and Izmail, established by minister Stoenescu, were inaugurated in December 2016. The center in Solotvyno (Slatina) was opened in 2018 and the one in Korcea was inaugurated in 2019.
Furthermore, a project called the Common Communication Space Romania – Republic of Moldova was initiated in order to support cooperation and convergence projects between press institutions, civil society and governmental institutions on a bilateral level. As part of this strategic project it was established the Romania – Republic of Moldova Mass media Consultative Council – a consultation forum for the civil society, management representatives of press institutions and journalists from both states to harmonize and integrate media laws and public policies in the area of mass media communication.
During his term, he promoted measures to combat what he views as the artificial division of Romanian communities between Romanians and Moldovans, Romanians and Timok Vlachs and Romanians and Aromanians.
For a stronger common inter-institutional demarche in support of Romanian communities, the minister delegate always brought along during his visits abroad representatives of the Presidential Administration, the Commissions for Romanians Abroad in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of Romania as well as of other ministries. The minister delegate was the first high-ranking official member of the Dacian Cioloș government to visit the Republic of Moldova