Suchergebnisse

Abstract
Since the outbreak of the 2008/2009 global financial crisis, the economic balance between the traditional developed economies and the emerging ones has changed drastically, including that between the European Union and China. While the EU and its Member States are preoccupied by the eurozone debt crisis, stagnant economic growth and high domestic unemployment, China raised as the world's second largest economy and one of the quickest growing consumer market. This paper explores the change in perception of the EU as an economic actor in the eyes of Chinese mainstream news media and national elites under such context. It argues that the strategic partnership could improve only if the two sides understand the mutual perception clearly. It is found that China has increased its leverage for bargaining vis-à-vis the EU as well as the capacity to give some help to the EU. Although the image of the EU as an economic powerhouse has been slightly weakened, it did not turn the heavily trade-oriented EU-China relations more comprehensive.

This article systematically investigates both regional and issue-specific variation in external perceptions of the European Union (EU) as a global power and an international leader. While most studies on EU external perceptions focus on a one-dimensional vision of EU leadership and/or great-powerness, it is argued here that these perceptions are highly issue-specific, multilayered and differentiating. This study draws on data collected through elite interviews in three regions: the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Africa. The findings make a contribution to the debate on the perception of third states on the international role of the EU. Adapted from the source document.

Contributing to the wider field of studies of international communication strategies by major international fora, this study investigates a scholarly vacuum – the role of visibility in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). A novelty of this inquiry is that it is carried out on endogenous (i.e. deriving internally in ASEM) and exogenous (i.e. originating externally to ASEM) levels. Addressing the former perspective, this paper examines ASEM's official discourse and its vision of the role of visibility. Addressing the latter, exogenous perspective, the paper explores a rarely addressed dimension in ASEM studies, namely personal perceptions of the forum among Asian national elites (the opinions expressed by representatives of political, business, media and civil society circles in Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand). The main rationale is to assess whether the degree of ASEM's visibility positively correlates to the direct involvement of the stakeholders into or to the achievement of the process. Positing its inquiry within a social constructivist perspective, this article argues that, instead of being conceptualised as the end-goal, visibility should be understood as an element in the construction of the Asia-Europe relations under the ASEM framework.