ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of an examination of the European Union's (EU) enlargement decisions that can provide important insights into the Union's own understanding of what it is or should be. In order for an organisation to identify criteria for the inclusion of members, one would expect it to already have, or to be forced to form, an idea of its fundamental purposes. The chapter discusses the types of criteria that have been used to determine who is perceived as 'one of us'- and who is not- as well as what this might tell us with respect to the Union's self-perception. It introduces the analytical approach for studying how enlargement relates to various types of political order. The chapter explores how analyses of the EU's decisions to enlarge may contribute to our understanding of the 'nature of the beast'. It is based on the debates on enlargement as they unfolded in the early 1980s and the early 2000s.
