7. The prospect of Turkish membership in the EU has led to the Essay

7. The prospect of Turkish membership in the EU has led to the emergence of increasingly stringent conditions for membership. Discuss - Essay Example Expansion has largely been carried out in the countries of the former Soviet Union and this organization continues to come under pressure to expand eastward. Accordingly Turkey, a predominately Muslim country straddling the border between Europe and Asia, is seeking membership into one of the most exclusive multilateral clubs in the world. Undertaking an analysis the candidacy of Turkey for membership in the EU, the following will discuss the major obstacles to the inclusion of Turkey within this exclusive multilateral club. This essay will begin with a concise overview of the European Union and will address the evolution of the EU following the collapse of state-led communism in Eastern Europe. This led to an increased desire for the EU to expand and the ramifications of this incredible and for some, unimaginable, fact will be analyzed with respect to the EU. We then turn to an analysis of enlargement, the ever-increasing demand for growth, the trajectory in which the EU has grown and finally, the reasons why Turkey is not a suitable candidate for membership in the European Union. We will explore the domestic and historical factors which make Turkey a poor candidate for EU membership and will conclude with a broad overview of our overall analysis (Warleigh 13; Fierke & Wiener 1-24). The European Union (EU) is a supranational body composed of constituent member states, found largely on the European peninsula. Democracy, negotiation, and collective decision-making through multilateralism are all inherent attributes of the modern EU. Today, membership in the European Union is actively sought by nearly all countries on the European peninsula as well as by one country straddling both Europe and Middle Asia (Turkey). Although there were initially only five members of the precursor to the European Union (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and West Germany), there are presently 27 countries in the EU and they