Whether And, If Yes, to What Extend and How, Do Ideational Factors

Central European University Department of International Relations and European Studies From Bright Light to Blackout: The Influence of the Europeanization Paradigm on Bulgarian Foreign Policy and Transport and Energy Infrastructure Policy by Gergana Dimitrova A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Béla Greskovits Word count: 93 249 CEU eTD Collection Budapest, September 2008 Declaration I hereby declare that no parts of the thesis have been submitted to no other institution different from CEU towards a degree. To my knowledge nor does the thesis contains unreferenced material or ideas from other authors. Gergana Dimitrova CEU eTD Collection ii Abstract This dissertation presents a constructivist account of the dynamics of the europeanization process in Bulgaria. It focuses on the interpretive frameworks that structure policymakers’ approach to the europeanization agenda, on the interplay between the rival policy discourses that shape these frameworks, and on the manner in which political actors employ the symbolic power of policy ideas in the process of political mobilization. On the basis of in-depth case studies of two important crisis periods in Bulgarian policymaking, I trace the mechanism through which the Europeanization approach that emerged as Bulgaria’s dominant policy paradigm in the late 1990s has impacted on foreign policy and transport and energy infrastructure policy. The first crisis followed Bulgaria’s involvement in the Kosovo conflict and was caused by the government’s decision to support NATO’s air war against Yugoslavia despite heightened domestic controversy. The second crisis was caused by Bulgaria’s resistance against EU nuclear safety conditionality that envisaged the premature decommissioning of four allegedly unsafe nuclear units at the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant. The Europeanization paradigm emerged as a two-sided construction that joined a grand project of identity transformation with a grand project of economic development and social welfare. During the Kosovo crisis, it was deployed as the dominant policymaking framework. The leadership’s Europeanization-inspired foreign policy doctrine started out by defining Bulgaria’s identity as European and non-Balkan. On this basis, it determined the national interest as an interest in demonstrating Euro-Atlantic solidarity in order to join the EU and NATO sooner rather than later, predetermined the policy outcome, and delegitimized alternative policy options and domestic resistance. During the Kozloduy crisis, the Europeanization paradigm failed to influence the elite and the CEU eTD Collection public. It was outperformed by a discourse focused on national interests, sovereignty, national dignity, and economic development and prosperity, all of which were equated with the nuclear energy industry. Neither strategic calculation nor economic rationality fully dominated policymaking during the two crises. Policy was largely shaped by the iii divergent ability of the Europeanization paradigm and its rivals to influence the interpretive frameworks that guided policymaking. The dissertation analyzes the factors that account for the changing effectiveness of the Europeanization paradigm. The paradigm’s decline has been partly due to the declining importance of its ‘identity’ elements under the influence of the changing domestic and international ideological environments. During the Kozloduy crisis, the paradigm became vulnerable to challenges also due to its failure to keep its identity project and its developmental project connected. Political mobilization has mattered, too. The policy impact of the Europeanization approach and its rivals has depended on how skillfully their proponents have utilized the symbolic power of policy ideas to enframe their policy agendas, to produce hegemonic constructions of the national interest, and to affirm their moral authority to participate in the policy debates. The diminishing policy impact of the Europeanization paradigm has reflected its diminishing ability to respond to Bulgaria’s international marginalization and domestic socio-economic crisis and to recover Bulgarians’ sense of collective self-esteem. It has also reflected perceptions of its growing incompatibility with Bulgaria’s agenda of transport and energy infrastructure development. CEU eTD Collection iv Acknowledgements I am indebted to my supervisor Béla Greskovits for the guidance, comments, and inspiration that I have received during the years in which we have worked together, and specifically for his invaluable help in the last stages of thesis writing. I thank all faculty members of the IRES and Political Science departments that I have had a chance to work with, for guiding me in my studies. Comments by Stefano Guzzini on an unpublished manuscript were very helpful. I have greatly benefited from the support of the International Policy Fellowships program of the OSI for a research project that ended up being important for this thesis. Many thanks to Mr. Krastev (Bulgarian Ministry of Transport) and Petko Kovatchev (CEE Bankwatch network); they both took extra time to help me with this project. I would have not finished this thesis if it were not for the love and good mood of my son Daniel, who shared me with a laptop for several months without staging major protests. CEU eTD Collection v Table of Contents Introduction: Two Stories of Bulgaria’s Europeanization.......................................................1 Europeanization Midway between Europe and the Balkans .................................................11 The Discourse of Balkanism...................................................................................................11 The Balkans on the Cultural and Civilizational Maps of Europe.........................................11 The Return of ‘Cultures’ as Explanatory Variables ............................................................13 Balkanism and the Wars in Yugoslavia..............................................................................14 The ‘Other’ Story of Yugoslavia’s Breakup .......................................................................17 Balkanism and the International Response to the Yugoslav Conflicts.....................................20 Balkanism and the Major Policy Approaches towards the Balkans ........................................23 The ‘Legacies of Ethnic Conflicts’ Approach and the ‘Transition’ Approach.....................23 The Europeanization Approach to the Balkans...................................................................30 Bulgaria and the External Discourses on the Balkans............................................................41 The Ascent of Bulgaria’s Europeanization Paradigm.............................................................42 Europeanization, Nationalism, and Bulgaria’s Historical Experience .................................42 Europeanization, Balkanism and the Domestic Intellectual Environment ...........................45 Bulgaria’s Civilization Choice ...........................................................................................50 The Nationalism/Sovereignty Discourse.................................................................................56 Summary ...............................................................................................................................58 ‘We Will Not Be Hostage to the Balkans’: Identity Politics and the Europeanization Paradigm during Bulgaria’s Involvement in the Kosovo Crisis ............................................60 Domestic Repercussions of the Kosovo Conflict.....................................................................61 Political Costs....................................................................................................................61 Pressure for Adequate Compensations ...............................................................................63 Bulgaria’s Quest for Compensations .....................................................................................63 Ideological Underpinning of the ODS Government’s Kosovo Crisis Policy............................66 Bulgaria’s Balkan Predicament ..........................................................................................67 The Doctrine of Differentiation from the Balkans ..............................................................70 The Doctrine of Proactive Euro-Atlantic Association.........................................................76 Rival Ideological Positions: The Sovereignty Discourse ........................................................80 Danube Bridge-2 and Bulgaria’s Kosovo Crisis Policy..........................................................84 The Danube Bridge-2 Project.............................................................................................84 CEU eTD Collection Importance and Feasibility of the Second Danube Bridge ..................................................89 Role of Stakeholders and Sectoral Lobbies ........................................................................99 The Construction of Bulgaria’s ‘Strategic Bridge’............................................................... 101 Europeanization and Infrastructure Development............................................................. 101 The Policy Approach to Transport Infrastructure Development........................................ 105 Ideological Enframing of Danube Bridge-2.....................................................................

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