Minority rights conditionality has been seen by scholars as a key part of the EU enlargement process. While the focus on minority rights has largely been discussed in terms of democracy and even human rights, this article argues that... more
Minority rights conditionality has been seen by scholars as a key part of the EU enlargement process. While the focus on minority rights has largely been discussed in terms of democracy and even human rights, this article argues that conditionality was a result of the securitization of minorities rather than an agenda to protect or empower. In this paper, we look at the minority rights conditionality through the prisms of security, democracy and regional integration and examine how these narratives have been shaped by European organizations. In response to the conclusions of Paul Roe about the inability to desecuritize societal security, we look at whether these organizations have the ability to change the societal dynamics to make the desecuritization of societal security more likely to occur. Overall, we illustrate how the focus on regional stability has linked both democracy and regional integration to the securitization of minorities reinforcing a status quo rather than a mandate for protect and empowerment. The resulting conclusion is further evidence of the inability to desecuritize societal security.
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With the integration of Central and Eastern Europe into the political, economic and security organizations of the ‘West’, we have seen the level of coordination increase as part of the enlargement processes of the Council of Europe and... more
With the integration of Central and Eastern Europe into the political, economic and security organizations of the ‘West’, we have seen the level of coordination increase as part of the enlargement processes of the Council of Europe and the EU, whereas the OSCE has focused on ‘persons belonging to’ national minorities retrospective of membership. Importantly, we can see that in the EU enlargement process, these organizations worked together in order to encourage the implementation of policies that protected the rights of national minorities. It is this complex coordination between organizations that makes the European minority rights regime an interesting case study.
Research Interests:
Minority rights conditionality has been seen by scholars as a key part of the EU enlargement process. While the focus on minority rights has largely been discussed in terms of democracy and even human rights, this article argues that... more
Minority rights conditionality has been seen by scholars as a key part of the EU enlargement process. While the focus on minority rights has largely been discussed in terms of democracy and even human rights, this article argues that conditionality was a result of the securitization of minorities rather than part of an agenda to protect or empower. In this article, we look at the methods of desecuritization as factors of ‘narratives, norms and nannies’. In response to Paul Roe’s conclusions about the impossibility of desecuritizing societal security, we examine whether the EU, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe have the ability to change the societal dynamics among ethnic groups in such a way as to make the desecuritization of societal security more likely. Overall, we illustrate how a focus on ‘deconstructivist’ and ‘constructivist’ approaches to societal security has failed to make European organizations important transformati...
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Following the end of Cold War, the European political community and its international organisations set out on a new course to substantiate minority rights as a fundamental principle of democratic Europe. Coming from the perspectives of... more
Following the end of Cold War, the European political community and its international organisations set out on a new course to substantiate minority rights as a fundamental principle of democratic Europe. Coming from the perspectives of regional stability, ...
Research Interests:
The issue of national minorities in post-Cold War Europe has warranted considerable scholarly attention with regard to security, democratization and regional integration. The literature has focused on how European integration compelled... more
The issue of national minorities in post-Cold War Europe has warranted considerable scholarly attention with regard to security, democratization and regional integration. The literature has focused on how European integration compelled host states to comply with obligations to protect a national minority within their borders. Missing from this debate, however, is a more comprehensive analysis of whether European integration has had an effect on the wider geopolitical relationship between the host state and the kin state over national minorities. Has European integration served to dampen or to intensify the salience of nationalist politics between host and kin states? To address this gap the range of host state–kin state relations in Central and Eastern Europe is explored corresponding to whether both states are EU members (at least one may be a candidate country) compared with when one state remains external to the EU for the foreseeable future. It is argued that, despite much of the Europeanization literature, European integration can have an amplifying effect on nationalism regardless of whether kin states are existing members, acceding states or outside the process altogether.