8
relationship with the other that is not dependent on the construction of antithetical
difference and threat.
16
Several reservations can also be raised against this third line of argument.
Although there have been successive rounds of enlargement, there is no indication of a
further enlargement after the remaining candidates –Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey- have
become members. In other words, the fluidness of the Eastern border may as well be a
transitional phenomenon, to be solidified once the enlargement process is complete, and
not a defining feature of the EU itself. In addition, the associational relationships that the
EU builds with states on its periphery do not necessarily blur the self/other distinctions, as
they are distinguished from membership and candidacy relations. Moreover, the non-
definition of the boundary can create sites of ambiguity and liminality that may be
perceived and represented as especially threatening, rather than experiencing a smooth and
progressive expansion of the collective identity. For example, by situating Turkey in an
ambiguous institutional position until 1999, it may be argued that the EU constructed a
fluid frontier as opposed to a strict boundary with Turkey. However, this has not helped
constitute the EU as a post-modern collectivity because a close inspection of the
discourses surrounding EU’s interaction with Turkey reveals widespread representations
of identity threat.
17
In short, those who argue that the EU constitutes a post-modern collectivity
contend that the EU possesses a post-nationalist or post-Westphalian collective identity,
not dependent on the construction of outsiders as different and threatening. The
assumption is, therefore, that the external relations of the EU do not suffer from the
potentially adverse implications of construction of difference. The EU’s interactions with
outside states are characterized either by the latter’s active socialization and progressive
incorporation into the community, as witnessed for example in the successful Eastern
enlargement of the European Union, or by peaceful coexistence, but not by confrontation
or conflict. If there are any outstanding conflicts between community members and
outside states, then the likely effects of community-building on those conflicts are
assumed to be ameliorative or at worst, stabilizing, but not perpetuating or aggravating.
16
Buzan and Diez, ‘The European Union and Turkey’
17
Bahar Rumelili, ‘Liminality and Perpetuation of Conflicts: Turkish-Greek Relations in
the Context of Community-Building by the EU’, European Journal of International
Relations, 9:2 (2003), pp. 213-48.
Convention