Constructing institutional interests: EU and NATO enlargement

The analysis is motivated by both an empirical and a theoretical concern. It asks why both organizations are enlarging, despite questions about the materially based interest in doing so. It then raises a related theoretical question about how organizations know their interests and how these interests are transformed. The relationship between three concepts – speech acts, contextual change, and institutional interests – is explored by following the behaviour of three actors: NATO, EU and the CEECs. The analysis demonstrates how, given the dramatic change of context with the end of the Cold War, the meaning of the Cold War ‘promise ’ of the Helsinki final act was transformed into a threat. The article argues that the rationality of both enlargement decisions has to be situated in a context of a priori and changing meanings regarding the identity and norms of the ‘West’.