Euroopan unionin laajentumispolitiikan operationaalinen koodi: tapaus Länsi-Balkan

This article seeks to identify and characterize the “operational code” – the “philosophical” and the “instrumental” beliefs – behind the European Union’s enlargement policy insofar as this is possible on the basis of the pivotal case of the Western Balkans. The empirical analysis is primarily based on public speeches by EU commissioners, embedded in events and trends of the Union’s policy vis-à-vis the Western Balkans and the individual countries of this region. The analysis is structured around Alexander George’s neoclassical framework for the study of operational codes of political actors. However, the present article complements George’s approach by taking also into account the moral aspect of politics, an aspect that he ignored on scientific grounds, thus deviating in this regard from Nathan Leites’ pioneering studies on the operational code of the Soviet Bolsheviks. By focusing on a collective actor, the EU in its collective aspect, this article also deviates from the mainstream study of the field since the 1980’s, which has specialized in the analysis of the codes of individual
prominent statesmen.