EU: The Lure of Membership

Gavin highlights a great piece in the Washington Post by Robert Kagan on the lure of the European Union and its transformational power, e.g. in Turkey.

Europe’s foreign policy today is enlargement; its most potent foreign policy tool is what the E.U.’s Robert Cooper calls “the lure of membership.”

Cooper describes the E.U. as a liberal, democratic, voluntary empire expanding continuously outward as others seek to join it. This expanding Europe absorbs problems and conflicts rather than directly confronting them in the American style.

An excellent article which explains succinctly why a start to accession talks for Turkey are of vital importance for both Turkey and the EU, but also the World.

Posted by Paul in European Union Politics at December 16, 2004 05:23 PM | 0 Comments