The making of the visegrad initiative : crises and survivals, dilemmas and prospects

Download
2004
Kuzum, Sinan
This thesis aims to scrutinize the Visegrad Quadruple Initiative as a device of the Central European countries in the process of involving into the re-negotiations in Europe and in world politics. The thesis argues that the Visegrad group was built in order to respond the demands of changing Europe and Euro-Atlantic structures, and thus to overcome the double process of transition and integration. However that was not the only reason to launch the Visegrad regional cooperation. The group produced an affirmative discourse that its members are distinguished from the other countries in transition, so that they are constantly one step forward to ءreturn to Europe̕. In the aftermath of the eastern enlargements of NATO and the EU alike, the original mission of the group, integration with the West, was achieved. That created a profound discussion about the survival of the group. As it is argued in this thesis, the group, as a prosperous and substantial regional cooperation, should rather continue to work in order to have more words to say in the re-negotiations processes. Another argument of the thesis is that the Visegrad group, taking Benelux group as a model in its continuity, is beneficial to produce a common foreign policy tendency among its members as long as the interests of its members are overlapping, otherwise the group is just being a political platform in which its members can share their views in such areas as regional regulations.

Suggestions

Transformation and the "politics of conditionality" : a comparative analysis of Poland and Romania until the mid-1990s
Akşit, Sait; Yalman, Osman Galip; Department of International Relations (2006)
This thesis examines the socio-economic transformation processes in Poland and Romania and aims to embed them in broader structural and historical context of changes. The main argument is that transformation processes in the states of Central and Eastern Europe are constituted by the global processes of change within a social totality. The study has three main objectives. First, it aims to provide a theoretical framework challenging the mainstream approaches methodologically/ontologically to point out to th...
Changing conceptions of "Europe" in selected countries of Central Eastern Europe : a comparative analysis of pre-1989 era with the EU accession process
Alpan, Başak; Ertuğrul, Kürşad; Department of European Studies (2004)
Departing from the idea of a slippery ideological surface over which the term أEuropeؤ is conceptualized, which is continuously susceptible to shifts and redefinitions, this thesis is devoted to the attempt to outline the differences between the two ways of the conceptualization of أEuropeؤ in Central Eastern Europe in two specific periods and political contexts. The first period mentioned is the early 1980s, or pre-1989 period, punctuated with the Central European intellectuals̕ (the so-called dissidents̕)...
Albania’s quest for the EU membership and the prolonged integration process
Kurti, Elda; Türkeş, Mustafa; Department of International Relations (2013)
The main aim of this thesis is to analyze Albania’s ongoing EU integration process and to consider Albania’s bid for the EU membership. This study, by providing an overview of Albania-EU relations in time and presenting an analysis of the stances of the social forces in the country regarding the EU integration process, aims to reveal the existence or not of a hegemonic pro-membership perspective in this regard. In addition, an analysis of the EU’s stance towards this Albania’s quest for the EU membership is...
The NGOs as policy actors : the case of TÜSİAD with regard to Turkey's Eu membership
Gündem, Şebnem; Dağı, İhsan Duran; Department of European Studies (2004)
This study explores the effectiveness of NGOs within the policy process and governments2 decisions based on the case of TÜSİAD2s activities with regard to Turkey2s full membership process in the European Union. It firstly explains the process by which NGOs2 have become 3actors4 in world politics. The thesis, then, scrutinizes the role of NGOs in the policy process with regard to pluralist and corporatist paradigms and the concept of power since policy process can not be well understood without this theoreti...
The evolving concept of flexible integration within the European union : a tool for managing diversity?
Er, Başak; Kahraman, Sevilay; Department of International Relations (2004)
This thesis scrutinizes أflexible integrationؤ as an evolving concept within the European Union. It aims to understand the framework in which the debate on flexibility has taken place before the institutionalisation of the mechanism with the Treaty of Amsterdam through examining the different conceptualisations, past examples and the political debate associated with these examples. After analysing the Treaty provisions on flexible integration, the thesis attempts to answer the question whether this mechanis...
Citation Formats
S. Kuzum, “The making of the visegrad initiative : crises and survivals, dilemmas and prospects,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2004.