Suchergebnisse

With the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and the launch of the European External Action Service, the European Union (EU) has embarked on a new phase of international diplomacy, which includes renewed attention to EU public diplomacy (PD) efforts. This article aims to contribute to EU PD scholarship and practice by studying the images and perceptions of the EU among news media professionals in Asia (findings from twelve Asian locations in the north-east, south, and south-east of the continent).A systematic analysis of the newsmakers' perceptions of the EU is doubly beneficial - firstly, it displays an insight into the world view of a powerful cohort of stakeholders in the region, and secondly, it explores the visions and attitudes that may stand behind choices in EU news selection and news writing. Findings of this survey of EU external images are discussed using basic typology of PD and its category of listening in particular.

AbstractAdvancing theorization of the perceptual approach to EU foreign policy, this study develops a new notion of critical expectation gaps, intended to reflect on the depth and intensity of the rapture between expectations/hopes and perceived performance of the EU. In our focus is the correlation between the degree of externally perceived 'Otherness' and the likelihood of EU external action to be considered effective, whereas the EU adapts (or not) to existing perception gaps (in this research, the expectation–performance and hope–performance gaps). We propose a novel conceptual apparatus to understand the gaps in terms of the locus of expectations and types of causal factors. Empirically, we engage with a 13‐country dataset of external perceptions of the EU amongst tertiary educated youth.

The past decade has challenged the EU and its international image. The Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, the Ukraine crisis, the so-called irregular migration crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic have all put the EU under severe strain. This article explores if and how the EU's performance in such crises has impacted upon the external image of the EU. The analysis shows that external images have closely followed the EU's actual performance, although filtering it through the powerful lenses of local and regional concerns and sensibilities. While some traditional images have proved to be resilient in the longer run (as in the case of the EU as an economic powerhouse or a frequently divided community), others have been severely weakened by the EU's crisis responses (such as the EU as a bastion of human rights). Our findings contribute to the discussion on the public diplomacy and information strategy of the European External Action Service (EEAS) in shaping locally-resonating positive images of the EU worldwide.
external images of the EU, multiple crises of the EU, EU public diplomacy