Publication

This paper analyzes the transformative power of NATO accession that gains in importance due to the enlargement fatigue of the EU, the EU’s rather weak neighborhood incentives and the increasing importance of regional security as an incentive for compliance with the institutional standards of democracy and market economy. Econometric cross-country evidence from a hazard model reveals that the entry into NATO’s accession process is mainly driven by neighborhood and strategic effects rather than foregoing institutional reforms in a candidate-country.