Turkey’s Accession to the European Union: An Unusual Candidacy(The Konstantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy Series on European and International Affairs)

European views on Turkey’s membership in the EU have been split between those in support of its full integration and those advocating a privileged partnership. To the extent that many of the latter proposals imply that Turkey will be partially integrated within Europe in certain areas, the question of Turkey’s accession is probably not about ‘if’, but about ‘how much’ integration there will be within the Union’s structures. The purpose of this book is not to offer a definitive response to this question. The book aims instead to examine the complexity of the issues pertaining to Turkey’s prospective EU membership by presenting several, often divergent, accounts of the political, security and socio-economic dimensions of the entire process. The book provides a forum for an exchange of views among distinguished scholars and researchers from different national backgrounds in order to contribute to the ongoing public discussion of Turkey’s accession. Sophisticated, informative and refreshing in its argumentation, the book provides an excellent overview of the complexities of Turkey’s accession to the EU membership. Professor Mustafa Aydin, TOBB University of Economics and Technology A refreshing view from the European periphery, an original mirror of the Union's central challenges. Professor Georges Prevelakis, University of Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne

Table of Contents:
Enlargement Governance and the Union's Integration Capacity.- The EU-Turkey Negotiations: Between the Siege of Vienna and the Reconquest of Constantinople.- Turkey and Europe: The Importance of Predictability.- Tertium Datur: Turkey's Application for EU Membership.- Europeanisation and Its Discontents: Turkey, 1959–2007.- The European Union, Islam and Turkey: Delineating Europe's Soft Power.- Turkey and European Security.- Is Turkey Still an Asset for European Security?.- The Emergence of New Security Threats to the EU and Their Implications for EU–Turkey Relations: The Case of Illegal Migration.- How Can the European Union Transform the Greek–Turkish Conflict?.- Whither Turkey? Greece's Aegean Options.- Greek–Turkish Peace Processes as Autopoietic Systems.- Turkey and the Identity of Europe: Contemporary Identity Politics on the European Frontier.- The Debate's Impact on Europe.- Imagining the EU in the Turkish Mirror.- What Makes Turkish Islam Unique?.- The Political Economy of Turkey's Accession to the EU: A Comparative Analysis.

Review :
From the reviews: “Turkey’s Accession to the European Union brings together a set of perspectives on Turkey-European Union (EU) relations, as viewed by Turks, Greeks and other European scholars. The professed goal of the volume is to undertake ‘a comprehensive and multidimensional approach to the question of Turkey’s admission into European structures.’ It does fulfill that goal to a large extent, covering a wide range of issues, including security, identity, economy, institutional structures, and (im)migration. … the overall scheme remains quite accessible to the lay reader.” (Asli Toksabay Esen, New Perspectives on Turkey, Issue 40, 2009) “Turkey’s Accession to the European Union is more like a journey through a well-trodden and familiar terrain. … draws attention to political risks and benefits of Turkish membership as perceived by both sides, the role of identity and religion in the shaping of those perceptions, and the role or security considerations in the policy debate on how to integrate Turkey into European institutional frameworks. … aimed at readers who are new to the topic and policy makers and practitioners who are under stringent time constraints.” (Mehmet Ugur, The Political Quarterly, Vol. 81 (1), 2010)