Frank Schimmelfennig

 
  The EU, NATO, and the Integration of Europe  
  Rules and Rhetoric vergrößerte Ansicht in neuem Fenster    
   
   
  323 pages, Cambridge, University Press, 2003  
  ISBN 0-521-53525-5  
   

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Contents

About the author

Abstract

Frank Schimmelfennig analyzes the Eastern enlargement of the European Union and NATO and develops the theoretical approach of "rhetorical action" to explain why it occurred. The analysis shows that rationalist institutionalism accounts for the material member state preferences but cannot explain why the EU and NATO eventually decided to admit the Central and Eastern European countries. By contrast, sociological institutionalism explains this decision as the expansion of the Western international community to countries that have come to share its liberal norms but does not account for how this rule-based outcome was possible among self-interested states and against a powerful coalition of member states. Frank Schimmelfennig attributes this outcome to rhetorical action and the constraints of the community environment in which the member states acted. The candidates and their supporters among the member states successfully used arguments based on the collective identity, values, norms, and practice of the Western community to shame the opponents into acquiescing in enlargement.

Contents

   
Introduction
   
Part 1 Security, power or welfare? Eastern enlargement in a rationalist perspective
Rationalist institutionalism and the enlargement of regional organizations
NATO enlargement
EU enlargement
Conclusion: the rationalist puzzle of Eastern enlargement
   
Part 2 Expanding the Western community of liberal values and norms: Eastern enlargement in a sociological perspective
Sociological institutionalism and the enlargement of regional organizations
Eastern enlargement and the Western international community
The event history of enlargement
  Conclusion: the sociological solution to the enlargement puzzle
   
Part 3 Association instead of membership: preferences and bargaining power in Eastern enlargement
  Process hypotheses
  State preferences and the initial enlargement process
  Conclusion: the double puzzle of Eastern enlargement
   
Part 4 From association to membership: rhetorical action in Eastern enlargement
  Rhetorical action
  The decision to enlarge NATO
  The decision to enlarge the EU
  Conclusion: solving the double puzzle of Eastern enlargement
  Strategic action in international community: concluding remarks

About the author

Frank Schimmelfennig is a Fellow of the Mannheim Center for European Social Research, Germany. He has recently been a Jean Monnet Fellow at the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute (Florence) and a NATO Research Fellow. He has taught International Relations and European Politics at the Universities of Darmstadt, Düsseldorf, Konstanz, Mannheim and Tübingen. He has published on European international politics in, among others, Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of International Relations, International Organization, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Journal of European Public Policy.