ABSTRACT
This chapter uses Foreign Policy Discourse Analysis (FPDA), developed by authors including Wver and Larsen on the basis of Foucault's approach to discourse, in order to analyse the discourse of individual member states regarding Turkey's accession to the EU. The United Kingdom (UK) is a multinational state in that the English, Irish, Scots and Welsh came together in a process lasting from around 1400-1800 as a result of English conquest and political pressure facilitated by royal unions with Wales and later Scotland. The issue of sovereignty has also been central to British discourse on Europe. The primary focus of FPDA, then, is the nation state; it is therefore possible to talk about, for instance, a British', French' or German' discourse in this field. The basic tenets of contemporary French discourse on state and nation have their origins in the French Revolution of 1789.
