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Loughborough University

Politics, History & International Relations

Postgraduate Researchers

Natalie Martin

Email: N.J.Martin@lboro.ac.uk

Fax: +44 (0)1509 223917
Department of Politics, History and International Relations
Loughborough University
Loughborough
Leics.
LE11 3TU
UK
Natalie Martin

Biography

PhD working title:

“A question of security? How Turkey has come to be in accession talks with the EU.”

Current Research

My research asks why and how Turkey has come to be in accession talks with the EU. Utilising Historical Institutionalist theory it argues that ultimately the  Turkish accession process is an unintended consequence of the end of the Cold War and changes to EU security “actorness”.

Turkish eligibility for ”EU” membership was lain down in 1963 but Ankara was not seen as a viable “candidate” until 1999. I will argue that this was a direct result of the changing security situation in Europe at that time ie: the Kosovo conflict and the birth of the European Security and Defence Policy.

The offer of candidacy at the Helsinki EU summit in 1999 should then be seen as a critical juncture which set in train a path dependent process which led to the opening of accession negotiations in October 2005.

This was because candidacy had spurred reforms within Turkey towards meeting the Copenhagen Criteria which “rhetorically entrapped” (Schimmelfennig 2009) the EU within its own criteria. This – and Turkey’s continuing geostrategic significance – limited the options of both the Commission and the member states at the Brussels council in 2004 when taking the decision for accession negotiations with Turkey to be opened.

Ref:
Schimmelfennig, F. (2009) “Entrapped again: The way to EU membership negotiations with Turkey.” International Politics, 46:4; Pp 413-431.

Academic history

BA Hons in Philosophy – University of Birmingham  - 1986
MA Modern Turkish Studies – SOAS – 1993
MSc Research Methods – Pires, Loughborough University - 2007

Conference papers

(2008) UACES Student Forum 9th Annual Conference, University of Kent April 2008. “Why now? Turkish accession to the EU: A Historical Institutionalist approach.”

(2009) UACES Student Forum 10th Annual Conference, Salford University. April 24th and 25th 2008. “A question of security and identity?: The path dependence of EU-Turkey relations 1997-2004. “

(2009) Paper for the LSE Contemporary Turkish Studies 2nd Doctoral Dissertation Conference. 1st May 2009.  “The route to accession talks – EU-Turkey relations 1997-2004: Tracing the process.”

Book reviews

(2009) Review of: Monica Gariup, “European Security Culture: Language, Theory, Policy.” (Ashgate, Farnham, 2009), ISBN 978-0-7546-7555-6 (hbk), GBP60 (hbk). Published in European Foreign Affairs Review. 14:3 pp 451-456. See here