Global Perceptions of Europe

Strategic Europe has published a series of articles during the spring and summer of 2017 in its Capitals Series exploring how EU foreign policy is viewed by major non-European countries. It asked contributors to give a frank assessment of their country’s relations with the EU and rank five key issues in order of their importance in those relations.

The issues were trade, security and defence, climate and energy, democracy and governance, and development aid.

In this concluding and summing up feature Judy Dempsey wrote that many non-European countries were reassessing their views of the EU against a background of Trumpism, populism, and globalisation.

All thirteen non-European countries that contributed to the series — Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States — put trade as the number one priority in relations with the EU.