Natalia Chaban

Images of the EU Beyond its Borders: Issue‐Specific and Regional Perceptions of European Union Power and Leadership

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.

The Circular International Migration of New Zealanders: Enfolded Mobilities and Relational Places

Abstract Migrants’ social relations are reconfigured in relation to how the localised and distanciated are recombined in context of how individuals are embedded in the enfolded mobilities of increasingly mobile social networks. The paper is organized around three main propositions. First, that social relations are structured across three main and intersecting domains – family, workplace and community. Second, that social relations and networks are shaped by, and shape, the relational nature of places. Third, that the relational nature of places, and the reconfiguration of localised and distanciated relationships should be analysed across the entire migration cycle. These ideas are explored through a study of the Big OE from New Zealand to the UK, based on in‐depth interviews with returned migrants.

Studying External Perceptions of the EU: Conceptual and Methodological Approaches

The European Union’s (EU’s) leadership capacity in the international arena is not determined by only the EU itself. It is also influenced by external actors’ perceptions of the EU’s roles and by their reactions to EU initiatives. Is the EU perceived as a legitimate actor that has something valuable to contribute? Are its promises seen as credible? Are its policies and actions perceived as coherent? In the coming years, the EU will face a number of important international negotiations, which will shape future global governance structures: new efforts to save a free trade agreement within the World Trade Organization (WTO), attempts to decide on global rules to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases, and the EU’s aspirations to become a strong global energy governance player, just to name a few. In all these cases, outsiders’ perceptions of the EU will be key to the Union’s impact on the outcome. The EU’s economic and financial crisis adds to the uncertainty surrounding EU influence: in what ways may the crisis change other actors’ images of the Union?

The EU as an Agent for Democracy: Images of the EU in the Pacific Media ‘Mirror’

Abstract The Pacific is a major recipient of EU assistance under the Cotonou Agreement and target for EU development actions (including the reinforcement of democracy and human rights). Positioning its inquiry within the diffusion theory, this study focuses on one of the Union’s ‘normative’ profiles communicated externally, namely the EU’s international performance as a promoter of democracy, rule of law and human rights. This paper considers a particular case study, namely the EU’s metaphorical imagery in media discourses in Fiji, a South Pacific state experiencing an ongoing democratic crisis. These external media framings of the EU are then compared with the auto-images the Union has about itself when interacting with the Pacific. The conclusions indicated a mismatch in external and internal EU imagery potentially ripe with miscommunication and counterproductive for EU–Pacific relations in general (and EU–Fiji relations in particular).

Perceptions of ‘Normative Power Europe’ in the Shadow of the Eurozone Debt Crisis: Public Perspectives on European Integration from the Asia Pacific

The study argues that a key aspect of the productive dialogue between the sender and receiver of norms and values is the cultural filter, represented in this analysis through a continuum of perceptions. Specifically, this chapter is interested in the reception of what is arguably one of the European Union’s (EU) most successful norms—regional integration. By investigating images of the EU as a model of (or at least a reference for) regional integration in the Asia-Pacific, this chapter notes potential factors shaping perceptions and proposes a multi-level understanding of those factors and how they may affect the reception of normative messages sent by the EU. This chapter explores external public perceptions of the EU using data derived from public opinion survey (10,000 respondents) conducted in 2012 in ten Asia-Pacific countries contrasting these findings with surveys conducted in those countries pre-2012. Tracing the dynamics of the spontaneous images of the EU as a global referent for regional integration, this analysis offers unique comparative longitudinal insights into the international norm diffusion of the EU.

Introduction: The Evolution of EU Perceptions: From Single Studies to Systematic Research

The prolonged and ongoing series of European Union (EU) economic crises would appear to suggest that much of the research on EU politics and foreign policy is in urgent need of revision. This is particularly so regarding the external images of the EU. An understanding of changing perceptions may ‘contribute in important ways to understandings, expectations and practices relating to the EU as a global actor’ (Bretherton and Vogler, 2005, p. 43). It constitutes an important indicator for assessing if and how the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis has had a discernible impact on the EU’s influence on the rest of the world — either close or far away from its borders. It is also a ‘reality check’ for the EU’s own vision of its role as an international leader as well as of its status as a recognized power in an increasingly multipolar world. These two elements are linked as the EU’s external image influences its self-image and thus the EU’s behaviour as a global and regional actor. The EU’s external images then become important indicators of how good intentions have been translated into observable actions (Rhodes, 1999). They also serve as sources of knowledge about European identity and the effectiveness of European common foreign policy. In sum, external views of the EU partly shape the EU’s international identity and roles (Elgstrom and Smith, 2006), while the EU’s institutional and policy reality is, in part, shaped in response to Others’ expectations and reactions (Herrberg, 1997).

Seeing the EU from Outside its Borders: Changing Images of Europe

Abstract This paper outlines the importance of the studies of EU external perceptions in the Asia-Pacific region in the times of global multipolar redesign and an ongoing eurozone sovereign debt crisis. It links understanding of the concepts of EU external images and EU international ‘branding’ to the conduct of the EU’s foreign policy. The paper also details the methodology of the transnational comparative research project ‘The EU in the Eyes of Asia Pacific’ which informs all contributions to this Issue. The paper then presents those contributions which explore EU external perceptions in nine Asia-Pacific locations, members of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process: China, Japan, South Korea, India, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia.

Introduction: To Take or Not to Take EU Norms? Adoption, Adaptation, Resistance and Rejection

Aiming to advance a research agenda on export and import of EU norms and values, the main focus is on the recipients of EU norms. This chapter raises questions concerning when, how and why EU norms are imported. How are EU norms adopted, adapted, resisted or rejected? How do norm-takers perceive of the EU and its norms? Is there a ‘normative fit’ or friction between EU norms and the local normative context? Bringing together insights from a variety of theoretical perspectives we investigate norm import and develop a conceptual framework to understand why norm takers around the world adopt, adapt, resist or reject the EU’s norm exports. Why are there differences in willingness to import norms exported by the EU in various parts of the world? We situate the conceptual framework within the normative power literature and we elaborate the notion of cultural filters including others’ perceptions of the EU in order to understand these responses to EU norm export. We emphasize translation of imported European norms into changes of institutional arrangements, policies and/or practices by recipients. We organize responses into a spectrum that stretches from unqualified adoption of European norms, over adaptation and increasing levels of resistance to unambiguous rejection. This conceptual framework provides us with tools to read a complex reality without necessarily mirroring this reality.

En‘vision’ing Europe's crisis: Intertextuality in news coverage of the Eurozone crisis in Chinese, Indian and Russian press

Abstract European political communication studies are marked by a lack of attention to the visual. Yet there is a need to go beyond strictly textual analyses towards an understanding that visual images also play an important role in constructing a European Union (EU) identity both within and outside the Unions borders. This analysis explores the relationship between visual and textual imagery of the EU in international news discourses; a comprehensive intertextual approach which remains an under-researched perspective in studies of visual imagery in general. The study focuses on the intertextual imagery of the EU and its economic crisis in three ‘emerging’ powers; China, India and Russia. The three states are among the main poles in a multi-polar world – an emerging order characterized by power shifts and increased interdependence. In this new global design, the ‘emerging’ powers compete with the EU and USA, and contemplate their own responses to the EUs economic crisis, as well as calculate its effects. This study explores those responses as presented in the leading business papers of each country and asks how the relationship between the visual and textual imagery of the EU contributes to raising visibility and creating cognitive and emotional responses to its on-going crisis.

The Role of the EU in an Emerging New World Order in the Eyes of the Chinese, Indian and Russian Press

ABSTRACT One of the major global challenges that the EU currently faces is the establishment of a multipolar world order with Emerging Powers—Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa—as prospective cooperation partners. News media is the key information gatekeeper. Therefore, this research probes the EU’s place in the emerging world order by scrutinizing the visibility and framings of the EU’s dyadic relations with China, India and Russia in the daily coverage of leading press in these three ‘rising powers’. We investigate the importance newsmakers ascribe to the EU’s dyadic interactions at the time of the Euro debt crisis in terms of volume, intensity and evaluation of EU representations and link this analysis to issue areas reported (political, economic, social, environmental or developmental). The results are discussed in the context of the importance of external perceptions studies for informed dialogue between modern-day ‘Great Powers’.