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.