European union enlargement on western balkans: identity transformation as a foreign policy instrument

The differences of the Western Ballkans enlargement from the other enlargement processes of the EU are relevant to the structure of the region and the foreign policy instruments of the EU. The Balkans has always had pejorative connotations for the Europeans. On the other side, the EU as a civil force, has a great gravity pull affect over its near abroad. However, due to this blackened image of the Balkans, recalling conflicts, violence, schisms and so forth, the prospect for full membership to the Union had been even unthinkable. Hence, the EU has employed some foreign policy instruments firstly to tame, and consequently to turn the nations of the region into `Europeans?. The EU has used basically two foreign policy instruments for the Western Balkans along the 1990s, while the chaos and war casted its shadow on the region. These instruments had been mostly for conflict resolution and designed for the relevant complex emergencies. Yet, by the end of the 1990s, the EU came to realize that ceasing the conflict or rehabilitating the victims was not enough. Therefore, the signs of a new approach became visible by the emergence of a new security perception that made its emphasis on the necessity of a security community, and consequently a positive peace for the sake of the stability and security on the whole continent. This new security perception is based on new and expanded conceptualization of security with its stress on its human aspect also. Furthermore, in parallel with this new perception, the strategies regarding allocation of the most-favorite nation status to the region countries and emboldening already existed kinship linkages with them have gained common parlance. On the other side, one can explain the integration process of the Western Balkans with the EU by using the social constructivist international relations theory. When we accept the identity as the structure, and the political elites as the agent, the strategy maintains the Western Balkans countries as in-group members, threby turning the political elites into the agents of the European identity. In this context, it follows that identity transformation has been used for the first time in the EU history as a foreign policy instrument, so as to set a precedent also in international relations discipline. Key Words: Balkans, European Union, Human Security, Identity, Social Constructivism