How regional organizations use international norms in debates about admitting new member states

What is it about?

This article investigates how policy-makers decide on whether or not to admit new member states in regional organizations. It argues that their discussions are cast in normative terms. Membership applications often trigger a debate about what it means to be a rightful member of the regional community of states. To illustrate this argument, the article shows that enlargement processes in the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have shaped the development of distinct regional identities.

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Why is it important?

All around the world, states have built regional organizations to help them address common problems. These institutions influence the politics of member states, but they also have a wider impact on world politics, as many important questions are increasingly addressed on a regional scale. Membership in regional organizations has not been stable but is fluctuating, with many growing over time but some also losing members. How the representatives of regional organizations and their member states decide on whether to admit new states is therefore an important issue to understand dynamics in regional and global politics.