As Europe Gets Larger, Will It Disappear?

David Ellison, in order to present the major issues associated with the enlargement and transformation of the European Union and the expansion and evolving role of NATO. The first piece in the Forum, written by Jeffrey Kopstein and David Reilly, examines the ability of the European Union to assimilate new members over time and the extent to which EU structures and norms have replicated themselves within new member states. These authors use cluster analysis to determine whether the increased diversity of new members significantly undermines the integrative project. The second piece by David Ellison emphasizes state interests over community values as the impetus behind the expansion of EU membership. His essay draws attention to the benefits of EU enlargement to old member states and the costs and burdens for new member states. Ellison argues that the determination by existing members to preserve and safeguard their own interests, the asymmetrical bargaining power of old and new member states, and the risk of being excluded from the 2004 wave of enlargement led to enormous concessions by East European negotiators during the accession process. The third and fourth pieces address the evolving security environment in Europe as NATO expands to incorporate postcommunist European states. Zoltan Barany examines the past two rounds of NATO enlargement, detailing the evolving debates supporting and opposing expansion that occurred within NATO and the United States. In his essay, Barany discusses the impact of the World Trade Center bombings on the unexpectedly rapid expansion of NATO and reflects upon the prospects for further additions to NATO’s membership. The fourth piece by Wade Jacoby explores the implications of NATO’s expansion for the security of the new NATO members as they channel military spending away from providing for their own domestic security in favor of creating elite forces that can participate in NATO actions on a symbolic, if not superficial, level. Jacoby explains that the United States government became more interested in this symbolic support after September 11, 2001 and less concerned with military modernization and overall military contributions from new NATO members given its own needs in the war in Iraq. Together these four essays offer important insights into the changing architecture of European politics and security. They should stimulate future research on European institutions in the new millennium.