New European Union Members' Reluctant
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THE TROUBLE WITH “RETURNING TO EUROPE”: NEW EUROPEAN UNION MEMBERS’ RELUCTANT EMBRACE OF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND MINORITY RIGHTS A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Lucia Antalova Seybert May 2012 © 2012 Lucia Antalova Seybert THE TROUBLE WITH “RETURNING TO EUROPE”: NEW EUROPEAN UNION MEMBERS’ RELUCTANT EMBRACE OF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND MINORITY RIGHTS Lucia Antalova Seybert, Ph. D. Cornell University 2012 Why do some norms make international advances more easily than others? What do nuclear safety and human rights have in common? Norms do not simply spread, they are adopted by governments and internalized by societies and while both steps are necessary for norm promotion, neither is sufficient. My argument disputes the dichotomy implicit in existing literature between “enlightened” civil society and norm-violating governments and suggests that often the roles are reversed. I also challenge the notion that once norms reach the international realm, their evolution stops. I test the theory by applying it to the 2004 enlargement of the European Union (EU), in which policies were presented to the acceding Eastern European states in a non-negotiable package deal. The primary, and contrasting case studies are in nuclear safety and ethnic minority rights, both of which have met only intermittent success but each for different reasons. The dissertation combines two levels of comparison – between norm types and across countries (Lithuania, Slovakia, Czech Republic). I use a mix of quantitative (computer-assisted text analysis, factor analysis) and qualitative methods. In terms of boarder impact, the project develops the norm promotion angle to assess the legitimacy of conditionality arrangements, which international institutions impose on divided and relatively resource-poor societies. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH In addition to her Cornell University degrees in Government (M.A. 2008, Ph.D. 2012), Lucia A. Seybert also holds a Master’s degree in German and European Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (2004). She earned her B.A. at a small UMUC campus located in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany (2002). Her work focuses on the dynamics surrounding international norm proliferation, or promotion, particularly in the context of the European Union enlargement. She is also interested in exploring the hierarchies between various norms and how the competition among them may affect vulnerable states’ foreign policy. iii For Starka iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS At every step that moved this project forward, slowly converting it from an undefined set of empirical observations, theoretical insights, and intuitions into an organized response to existing scholarship about international norms and European Union enlargement, I was not alone. The biggest thanks goes to Peter Katzenstein for always providing the perfect blend of encouragement and well-targeted criticism. Not only this dissertation, but also I as a scholar benefited immensely from his guidance in weighing the various paths that a project can take and always asking the hardest questions before anyone else gets that chance. I am also grateful to Matt Evangelista for insisting that I call things with the right name and for his help in making sure that the reader receives my ideas the way I intended her to. Val Bunce has always been there to encourage my inclination to go against the tides of received wisdom and doing this without losing touch with political realities on the ground. I am also indebted to Rawi Abdelal for providing a fresh look when it was most needed. In its earlier iterations, my work benefited from comments by Henry Shue, Sidney Tarrow, Judith Reppy, Richard Bensel, Ken Roberts and Hans Peter Schmitz, and I thank them all for their insights. This project would never be possible without the readiness of my interviewees in Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Brussels to find the time and answer my questions. Without exception, I met with curiosity about my project, patience in explaining the complexities of inter-ethnic relations or nuclear reactor design, and unusual generosity in sharing contacts’ contacts to help make my account as rich as v possible. Here, I would like to thank particularly Vladas Gaidys, Jurgis Vilemas, Janka Debrecéniová, Mikuláš Turner, Geoffrey Harris, and Derek Taylor. My work in Lithuania was made infinitely more doable with the help of my talented research assistant, Juste Neverauskaite. The minority rights portion of this study is based on a q-methodology survey that required anonymous but no less challenging participation from nearly a hundred respondents. Their commitment to completing the uneasy task of sorting their beliefs on the subject of minority rights represents an invaluable contribution not only to my work, but also to the still inadequate collection of data on ethnic tensions and minority rights in Eastern Europe. The numerous field research trips and subsequent processing of the data I collected would not have been possible without generous support from the Cornell Institute for European Studies, American Council for Learned Societies, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and Cornell University. I would like to thank Tina Slater for making sure all the administrative boxes were checked in the friendliest and most competent way. There were friends, who helped me go through the rite of passage that fieldwork and dissertation writing can be. Among those who understood this the best because they were in the midst of it themselves are Jennifer Hadden, Tsveta Petrova, Noelle Brigden, Alison McQueen, Jennifer Erickson, Elton Skendaj, Maria Sperandei, Kristin McKie, and Nora Verešová-Malinovská. And of course those, who knew less about dissertations and more about taking a break from it all: Mike and Margie Lehrman, Ginger Elsea, Johannes Widmann, Jeri Seidman, and Colleen Ebbitt. vi Following the convention, I thank my family last but my debt to them is the greatest. My parents, Anna Antalová and Juraj Antal, always encouraged me to reach high and run far, even if, ultimately, it meant I was no longer very close. My sister, Lívia, watched all I did as the fan and critic that only a younger sibling can be. Above all, I thank my husband, Nick, for his unwavering realism, motivating pessimism, and loving optimism, even when mine failed me. I thank Darian for his smiles and for being the best napper in the world. This book is dedicated to my grandmother, Mária Tonhauserová, and I hope Dari is like her when he grows up. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ x LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ................................................... 1 A Second Look at International Norms ...................................................................... 4 Methods and Chapter Preview .................................................................................. 25 CHAPTER 2: NOT ALL NORMS ARE UNIVERSAL – A TYPOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL NORMS ...................................................................................... 30 Telling Particular and Universal Norms Apart ......................................................... 36 Combining the Two Dimensions to Classify International Norms .......................... 54 CHAPTER 3: MINORITY RIGHTS AND NUCLEAR SAFETY CLASSIFIED ...... 66 Finding a Place for Minority Rights ......................................................................... 66 Defining the Nuclear Safety Norm ........................................................................... 83 Thinking out of the Box ......................................................................................... 108 CHAPTER 4: MINORITY RIGHTS ......................................................................... 111 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 117 The Word on the Street: Minority Rights in Slovakia and Lithuania ..................... 124 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 156 CHAPTER 5: STRATEGIC APPROACHES TO INTERNATIONAL NORM EVOLUTION: ROMA RIGHTS AS HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE EU ..................... 160 Bringing Norms and Those Who Promote Them Back In ..................................... 162 Roma Rights as Human Rights ............................................................................... 168 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 182 CHAPTER 6: NUCLEAR SAFETY .......................................................................... 183 Between Nuclear Safety and Energy Security ........................................................ 186 Mission Impossible? ............................................................................................... 217 CHAPTER 7: NUCLEAR SAFETY IN CRISIS ....................................................... 220 Critique of Practical Reasonability ......................................................................... 224 Between a Rock and a Hard Place .......................................................................... 229 How Not to Rest on