ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the three processes of socialisation, and it identifies where along the journey of becoming and being a member of a regional organisation the socialisation process emerges, and whether it waxes or wanes as countries move from applicant to member. The European Union (EU) study shows no sign of discursive engagement between members and Turkey, and member state behaviour has been limited to petulant displays of threatening to veto membership on grounds as chimerical as ‘not European enough’ or somewhat more worryingly, ‘too Islamic’. ASEAN, and the Organization of American States (OAS) for a time, were attempting to socialise only weakly-held standards inasmuch as they had commitments to ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’ without any detailed understanding of what those terms might mean. There is no desire to seek communicative consensus in social influence processes; neither Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nor the OAS understood the position of Myanmar or Panama respectively as legitimate, and there was no interest in modifying their positions.
