The Czech Republic and "Measures" of EU towards Austria in 2000: Somewhere between Defending European Values and Czech National Interests

Abstract

The paper analyses the motivation behind the Czech Foreign Policy's
decision to support the "measures" of the "EU-14" towards Austria in 2000,
which was an exception among EU-accessions candidate states. This paper
offers two hypotheses explaining the Czech decision to follow the EU-14
measures: defence of European values or international norms vs. the
assertion of the national interest. The hypotheses have been constructed
with the help of two approaches: the constructivist distinction between
"logic of appropriateness" and the "logic of consequentiality" in the state
behaviour, and the liberal-intergovernmental model of maximizing benefit,
i.e. improving the state's negotiation position. The analysis of arguments
which were used by the Czech political elite showed that the normative
argument and the argument regarding "national interest" were both used
in different variations by both advocates and opponents of the "sanctions".
Through an analysis of empirical material the author came to the
conclusion that detection of motives in foreign policy decisions requires
consideration of both of the aforementioned approaches. Obviously, a
comparative survey including further research materials could eventually
support this conclusion.