|
Abstract:
|
This paper proposes an inquiry into the strength and lengths of links
among security, development, and Central and Eastern Europe in the context of
the European Union (EU) enlargement. We argue that the enlargement discourse
is premised on the notion of an insecure and undeveloped Central and Eastern
Europe. Political developments in post-communist Europe are thereby conceived
in terms uncertainty about the proximity to, or distance from, an idealized
Europe or Europeanness. In order to understand how any of these categories --
security, development, and Central and Eastern Europe -- function in the
enlargement discourse, we consider how post-communist Europe is framed as
not yet developed, not yet fully European, and hence a potential source of
insecurity to Europe.
The first part of the paper highlights how the notion of an insecure and
unstable Central and Eastern Europe permeates accounts of EU enlargement, and
then proceeds to outline how this notion has been reconfigured in the past
decade. In particular, the paper demonstrates how Central and Eastern Europe
has been layered into multiple Europes, and how security has likewise been reframed
from a military matter to a more diffuse issue of European values. This
reconfiguration has made the nexus of security, development, and Central and
Eastern Europe more flexible, while further reifying the binary framework of
Europe. |