Abstract
Over the past three decades, the Visegrad Four (V4) shifted from normative conformity with the West to pursue a counter-hegemonic strategy in relation to the EU. Explaining the ‘why’s’ behind the non-conformity stance, the paper adopts discourse analysis to explain the rise of modern-day sub-regionalism within the political borders of the EU. The European migration crisis catalyzed a discursive clash between members of the V4 on one hand and actors within the European Institutions on the other. This has led to an identity redefinition within the V4, igniting a process of sub-regional reaffirmation. Other than being a complementary sub-regional grouping, the paper finds and coins a new category of sub-regionalism, ‘opportunistic sub-regionalism’ to explain the dialectic relationship between the EU and V4. We find that this alternative form of sub-regionalist grouping is linked to observable attempts at achieving a level of sub-regional actorship to influence decision making in the EU.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 385-402 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Journal of European Integration |
Volume | 43 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | 5 Jun 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 19 May 2021 |
Keywords
- art
- conditionality
- crisis
- european union
- europeanisation
- migration
- sub-regionalism
- union
- visegrad four
- ART
- Europeanisation
- European Union
- Visegrad Four
- CONDITIONALITY
- UNION