The history of European regional integration presents an intriguing paradox in the area of security. During the Cold War era, integration successfully performed security functions without an explicitly defined security interest. After the end of the Cold War, under conditions of decreased military threats, the European Union for the first time formulated direct security interests and embarked upon the continued institutionalization of a security domain. Paradoxically, at this advanced stage of development, the European project continues to coexist with conflict and insecurity at its borders and its external policies have been unable to efficiently contain them. Contrary to historical record empirical observation currently suggests that EU integration fails to fully address security concerns.; Motivated by this contradictory historical evidence, the dissertation sets out to investigate the viability of the conflict resolution capacity of regional integration. It applies critical case study analysis based on EU's enlargement to Southeastern Europe. The theoretical contribution of the dissertation lies with its novel approach to defining security in terms of regional order and a hierarchical political organization. It advances prior conceptualizations of security as imperial order to the level of empirical testing. The study considers the progressive security creation capacity of regional integration problematic due to the dialectical evolution of Westphalian sovereignty.
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