Communicating Europe in Times of Crisis: The EU in the Eyes of Asia Pacific

With the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and the appointment of the first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the launch of the European External Action Service, the EU embraced a new phase of international diplomacy. This innovation has been acknowledged as an opportunity for the EU to become “…a major actor in global affairs” (Emerson et. al 2011).  Yet, coinciding with the introduction of the Treaty, the sovereign euro debt crisis began to unfold causing considerable damage to the EU’s external image as a well-governed entity, an important basis for the EU’s attraction as a soft power. The proposed paper aims to assess the most recent changes in global images of the European project in a time of crisis.  These reflections are seen as the necessary first step in repairing the damaged EU image.

Using media, elite and public opinion data generated by an on-going international project “The EU in the Eyes of Asia-Pacific” (www.euperceptions.canterbury.ac.nz), the paper will explore the dynamics of EU external perceptions held by the Union’s ten key partners in Asia-Pacific: China, Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. The paper will advance theoretical knowledge by using empirical findings to test two influential hypotheses in the field of EU international identity and foreign policy studies – the “capabilities-expectations gap” (Hill 1993) and its later reiteration of “expectations deficit” (Tsuruoka 2004).  In the former case, it is hypothesized that there exists a gap between excessive expectations on the EU from both inside and outside the Union and an insufficient capability of the EU that cannot match these expectations. In the latter case, the gap appears when expectations of the EU in the international arena remain low despite the growing weight and influence of the EU as an international actor. The post-Lisbon EU reality marked by the on-going economic and financial crises is argued to present a fresh opportunity to revisit these two theories and examine the “coherence” between those images the EU wishes to convey in a time of crisis with those held among its international partners.