Civilization and international society: the case of European Union expansion

Abstract

Joining a society of some kind requires the fulfillment of certain standards. In international society, states acknowledge the need for certain collective standards of international conduct if international order is to be maintained. The first truly global application of international norms took place during the nineteenth century through the process of the expansion of the European society of states and its gradual transformation to the contemporary global international society. In this process, the standard of ‘civilization’ played an essential role in determining which states would join the expanding European society and which ones would not. Despite the major changes that have occurred, the standard of ‘civilization’ has remained an international practice as well as a benchmark against which the attitudes and policies of states are assessed. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the EU policy of ‘membership conditionality’. Although many explanations for EU expansion have been put forward rather absent from debate has been the civilization dimension which is embedded in membership conditionality and which should be given more emphasis.

Keywords:

• standard of ‘civilization’
• conditionality
• democracy
• human rights
• international law

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Richard Little, Cornelia Navari, Ewan Harrison, Daniel Green, and Hartmut Behr for reading and commenting on the earlier versions of this paper. The author also wishes to express his appreciation to the editor of Contemporary Politics and the two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments and constructive suggestions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yannis A. Stivachtis

Yannis A. Stivachtis is Director of the International Studies Program at Virginia Tech. He also serves as Head of the Politics and International Affairs Research Unit of ATINER (Athens Institute of Education and Research); Scientific Expert of the Research Directorate General of the European Commission; Member of the Executive Council of the Comparative and Interdisciplinary Studies Section (CISS) of the International Studies Association (ISA); and Secretary of the English School (ES) section of ISA. Email: [email protected]