the socialization of Czech and Romanian reformers and potential next-generation leaders by NATO
representatives.
The dynamics of the educational activities carried out by NATO came closer to the
constructivist--rather than the rationalist--logic. Those activities were explicitly aimed at teaching
students to regard Western-defined norms as the correct foundation of a progressive society; they
did not simply provide information about the conditions attached to NATO membership. Equally
importantly, the NATO/PfP educational activities targeted diverse groups, rather than being directed
only at Central/East European actors with decision-making power. Within the framework of the
NATO/PfP educational programs, Central/East European participants occupied the role of students
being exposed to a new culture, to new ways of understanding the world and thinking about
building postcommunist polities. As indicated in the mission statements of these programs, as well
as in the statements issued by some of their organizers, the interactions between NATO
representatives and Czech/Romanian socializees were aimed at disseminating new ideas and
presenting them as the correct way of making sense of the world, identifying problems and finding
solutions to those problems. The seminars and workshops organized within the PfP Consortium, at
the Marshall Center, NATO Defense College, or by the NATO Assembly, were not about promising
instrumental rewards to Central/East European socializees in exchange for their compliance with
NATO prescribed rules and norms. In fact, it is difficult to see how a system of incentives might
have operated within the framework of those programs. For instance, it is unclear why--or how-- the
allies might have offered to reward those Central/East European socializees for learning new norms
when many of them did not have decision-making power, hence, were in no position, at that time, to
introduce changes in the actions/policies of their countries.
Persuasion
In addition to, and often against the background of, systematic teachings, NATO
representatives engaged in specific instances of persuasion. Among the techniques of persuasion (or
types of persuasive appeals) used by NATO actors, especially important were consistency,
authority, and social proof. Consistency involves linking prescribed reforms to norms that are
accepted by socializees as unproblematic.
Linked to this, also frequently used were authority
appeals, involving efforts at persuading actors to adopt specific reforms by pointing to the special
expertise of NATO on a given question, or/and invoking the moral reliability of an institution that
embodied the liberal democratic community. Finally, NATO officials sometimes resorted to social
proof, seeking to convince Czechs or Romanians to promote a series of legal and institutional
changes by pointing to the example of established and even emerging democracies, who had set up
65
See, for example, Cialdini 1993; and Searing 1995.
19
Convention