External Perceptions of the EU during the Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis

Abstract:

Despite its growing popularity, research on EU external perceptions has yet to explore in detail how the sovereign Euro-debt crisis has affected the outsiders' views on integrating Europe and its global importance and what factors shape those perceptions. The question as to whether the crisis has impacted the visions of the core features of EU international identity, including the image of the EU as a global 'economic giant' and a 'soft' and 'normative' power', remains unexplored. Conceptualizing EU external perceptions as a link between theories explaining EU foreign policy actions, goals and capabilities and EU international identity, this article addresses these scholarly deficits and proposes analytical framework of global, location-specific and EU-specific factors shaping EU external perceptions. The article uses a 'mixed' method of analysis and applies it to 322 elite interviews from nine Asia-Pacific countries (2011-2012).