EU Enlargement and Socialization

The European Union’s enlargement has been considered a success story – apart from Cyprus and Turkey. This book looks at the EU’s expansion and examines its effectiveness in terms of international socialization and compliance, focussing specifically on the socialization of Turkey and Cyprus into the Western community. Although NATO-member Turkey submitted its membership application long before the end of the Cold War, the Kemalist state still struggles to become the first Muslim EU member state. Cyprus was allowed to join the organization in 2004, but the island remains a divided entity.

Providing a comprehensive theoretical perspective, the book is divided into three parts and investigates three questions:

• Why expand? From an EU / international organizations perspective.
• Why join? From an applicants’ perspective.
• Why comply? Exploring why a state would choose to adapt to the EU’s fundamental norms and rules from a candidates’ perspective.

Contradicting the impression that the latest round of EU enlargement has been a model story of smooth and effective socialization from top to bottom, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of the EU, European politics, international relations and particularly those interested in Turkey and Cyprus.

Stefan Engert is a research fellow at the J. W. Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.  He is the co-author of International Socialization in Europe: European organizations, political conditionality and democratic change.