Introduction: The Next Wave of Enlargement: The European Union and Southeast Europe after 2004

Abstract

First paragraph: The completion of the Central and Eastern European accession process into the European Union (EU) in 2004 can in broad terms be taken to have been a considerable success in generating an enlarged European zone of peace and stability. But the experience of post-communist transformation within this region is in stark contrast to that in South East Europe where the collapse of the Yugoslav Federation at the end of the Cold War unleashed a bloody and devastating conflict which necessitated the military engagement of the international community and culminated in a NATO-led military intervention into Kosovo in 1999. Although the EU has aspirations to develop a military dimension to its external identity, its international presence continues to be articulated predominantly through soft power e.g. diplomatic, economic and normative foreign policy instruments. The next wave of EU enlargement – if and when it happens - therefore represents a crucial contribution both to the continued creation of a stable European Order and the credibility of the EU as an effective international actor.