The European Union and the Cyprus conflict. Modern conflict, postmodern union

Book abstract:

This work draws together contributions from a workshop in Copenhagen in December 1999, entitled 'Catalyst to where? The EU and the Cyprus conflict'. It aims to encourage readers not to simply assume the taken-for granted views on Cyprus but instead to consider more critically some of the issues of identity and security on the island.

The volume is organised in three parts. Relations between the EU and Cyprus and the issues of the Cyprus conflict are addressed in their historical and international context in Part I with discussion on the challenges posed by the Union's enlargement in which Cyprus is featured. The Turkish and Greek contradictions are closely examined in Part II and the extent to which their differences have become institutionalised which might of itself present barriers to solution within the EU as much as it has done in the UN. Part III addresses more closely the involvement of the EU and considers whether or not the catalytic effect of the negotiations for membership will lift the argument above the modernist confines that discussion has been ensnared to date. The contributors' aim is to open a discursive space free of those snares.

The book will interest final year undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars studying European Union enlargement.