The EU, NATO, and the Integration of Europe: Rules and Rhetoric

Extract

The EU, NATO, and the Integration of Europe: Rules and Rhetoric. By Frank Schimmelfennig. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 338p. $80.00 cloth, $28.99 paper.

At the European Union meeting in December 2004, one of the topics for discussion was Turkey's accession. Although it appears that negotiations regarding this topic and the specific requirements regarding membership (e.g., Turkey's recognition of Cyprus) will continue for the next few years, this time it also appeared that EU member states were willing to engage in serious discussion about this issue. For Turkey, this has been a long time in coming; it initially applied for membership in 1987 and has been rebuffed each time since then. Although a member of NATO since 1951—the only Muslim member-state of the alliance—Turkey has been kept at a distance by the EU for a number of reasons. Justified largely on economic grounds, an underlying issue clearly has been whether the countries of first Western and now Eastern Europe really want to admit a country that is so “different.” In other words, what values and perspectives, as well as political and economic structure, are important for a country to really become a member of “the community”? The decision calculus regarding the admission of new states to both NATO and the EU are at the heart of this monograph by Frank Schimmelfennig, and the arguments he puts forth are especially germane now as the EU considers Turkey's membership and as NATO ponders its own future in light of the divisions caused by the war in Iraq.