Two Tiers Or Two Speeds?

The "new" security agenda, which has emerged fully in the post-cold war international system, forces a reconsideration of the interrelationships between the EU and NATO, the two most important institutions of European economic and military security. This book considers four issues attending enlargement that could conceivably defer or even derail the first enlargement of the EU and a second enlargement of NATO. NATO enlargement has been a relatively swift and painless process because there have been no compelling reasons not to proceed; and EU enlargement will remain a tortuous process with an uncertain outcome owing to an array of institutional, financial, and political liabilities of the accession states and constraints within the EU.

James Sperling is Professor of Political Science at the University of Akron.