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AbstractThe EU has consistently struggled to forge a foreign policy narrative which promotes internal cohesion and supports the EU's efforts to exert international influence. The 2016 EU Global Strategy is the latest iteration of collective efforts to tie strategy and purpose to the EU's coherent identity in the world. This study compares the EU's strategic partners of peace and security with narratives about the EU held in the EU's strategic partners in Asia. Whilst we find reasonable coherence in the EU's projection of the international system and its role in it, its identity as an actor, and its response to policy issues on the ground, views from Asia largely contest these claims. This article employs a strategic narrative approach to conceptualize and empirically trace how the formation, projection and reception of EU narratives are part of broader circuits of communication through which EU might be recognized, legitimized and achieve influence.

The EU has consistently struggled to forge a foreign policy narrative which promotes internal cohesion and supports the EU's efforts to exert international influence. The 2016 EU Global Strategy is the latest iteration of collective efforts to tie strategy and purpose to the EU's coherent identity in the world. This study compares the EU's strategic partners of peace and security with narratives about the EU held in the EU's strategic partners in Asia. Whilst we find reasonable coherence in the EU's projection of the international system and its role in it, its identity as an actor, and its response to policy issues on the ground, views from Asia largely contest these claims. This article employs a strategic narrative approach to conceptualize and empirically trace how the formation, projection and reception of EU narratives are part of broader circuits of communication through which EU might be recognized, legitimized and achieve influence.

The debate surrounding the challenge of improving coherence in European Union (EU) foreign policy is ongoing. EU Delegations (EUDs), operating under the European External Action Service (EEAS) were recently established to provide a focal point for the EU in third countries, providing potential for improving EU coherence. Using the case study of the EUDs, this article adds to theorizations of EU coherence – defined as the absence of contradictions between policies and positions, and between words and deeds – through elaborating the notion of external engagement coherence. Questioning the assumption that improvement of EU foreign policy coherence leads to the improvement of its effectiveness, the article analyses perceptions of the EUDs in three EU strategic partners – China, Russia and India. The article finds that the creation of the EUDs does not necessarily mean more perceived coherence for the EU. In spite of this finding; EUDs were nevertheless often viewed as effective, especially in certain areas.

This paper explores China's relationship with the European Union by analysing their mediated interactions during the eurozone debt crisis. Despite different current economic situations, China and the EU are a key global alliance. In light of this, the paper considers visual framings of the eurozone crisis in China's leading business newspaper focusing on meanings and evaluations rendered by political cartoons. The analysis finds the Chinese business press depicts the EU as struggling to handle its own financial affairs and asks whether this is seen as an opportunity for China to seize the title of global economic 'heavyweight'. ; Peer-reviewed ; Publisher Version

Abstract. In 2002, Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations were initiated between the European Union (EU) and the Pacific Island states. As of 2009, interim EPAs have been initialled with two Pacific countries, while no agreements have been made with the remaining Islands. Why such meagre results? We offer an explanation to this puzzle by pinpointing fundamental incompatibilities in basic beliefs and role conceptions. Behind the superficial consensus on negotiation goals, we find incongruent understandings of what development means and of the role of EPAs in this context. We demonstrate the existence of incompatible role conceptions: the EU's representation of itself as a generous benign partner is contrasted with the Pacific view of the EU as a benign master. Furthermore, the EU was perceived throughout the Pacific as putting undue pressure on their negotiators during the negotiations. These findings can inform the EU's general role as a normative power: such power depends on shared understandings of basic ideas and values, as well as on coherence between EU rhetoric and practice.

Abstract. This paper scrutinizes the role of the European Commission Delegations (ECDs) in their contribution to the EU's public diplomacy efforts. With the ECDs' personnel being posted to 136 countries and territories, delegations naturally play a vital role in the promotion of the EU. This role becomes all the more important in some third countries, where the delegation might be the only permanent representative of the EU or its Member States, and could be logically seen as 'test labs' for the European External Action Service proposed by the Lisbon Treaty. Drawing on 242 face-to-face stakeholders' interviews conducted from 2003 until 2008 in ten Asia-Pacific locations, this paper attempts to identify third-party perspectives on how the ECDs could increase their effectiveness worldwide. It develops suggestions intended to maximize the ECDs' public diplomacy impact in the Asia-Pacific region and, consequently, to reinforce an image of EU solidarity around the world.