Geopolitical Enlargement as a Demarcation Project

When does the European Union’s geopolitical enlargement durably separate candidate countries from rival powers, and through which mechanisms? Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, enlargement has served geopolitical ends. Its effects in candidate countries have however received less scholarly attention. This article conceptualises geopolitical enlargement as a demarcation project and theorises its outcome. Drawing on Rokkan and Bartolini, we argue that consolidated demarcation rests on two conditions: exclusion and anchoring. Exclusion strips the rival of its external leverage, making exit from its order possible. Anchoring roots European alignment in a domestic consensus that outlasts changes of government and resists capture by rival-sponsored actors. The EU pursues exclusion through substitution and legal incompatibility, and anchoring together with pro-European domestic actors.