Natalia Chaban

University of Canterbury | UC · National Centre for Research on Europe

This article further theorises and develops the notion of a threat of abandonment while trying to elucidate the applicability and usefulness of this concept in the case of Ukraine in its fight against Russia since 2014. If Ukraine perceives the European Union (EU) as weakened by multiple crises, it may translate this image into a scenario of less a...

Contributing to the debate of how narratives organize and serve information to exert influence beyond national borders, we answer an urgent call for comparative narrative analysis in International Relations (IR). To explore the changing global narratives of Ukraine, we engage with commentators who argue a certain unity in sensemaking about Ukraine...

This paper explores the intersection of pedagogical research in communication and research on public diplomacy and engages with the notion of knowledge diplomacy. It revises the concept of the “collaborative” central to both public diplomacy and higher education pedagogy. With both fields emphasizing the importance of co-creation, the paper theoriz...

Employing a perceptual approach to EU foreign policy studies, we argue that extensive changes following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have created important opportunities for diminishing many of the perceptual gaps that existed between the EU and Ukraine following the annexation of Crimea. We distinguish between change...

Contributing to the ‘narrative turn’ in International Relations and offering an answer to the question ‘What makes a strategic narrative efficient?’, this article adds to the methodological theorization of the formation and projection phases of the narrative’s lifecycle. We suggest that the impact of the constructed image in the narrative can be re...

Advancing theorization of the perceptual approach to EU foreign policy, this study develops a new notion of critical expectation gaps, intended to reflect on the depth and intensity of the rapture between expectations/hopes and perceived performance of the EU. In our focus is the correlation between the degree of externally perceived ‘Otherness’ an...

While Brexit has spurred the study of differentiation within the European Union (EU), its global ramifications remain largely out of focus. Yet, the Brexit referendum and the ensuing and drawn-out negotiations between the EU and the United Kingdom (UK), both on the terms of the divorce and their future relationship, have resonated globally and caus...

This article highlights the role of external audiences and their perceptions in analysing the politicization of EU development policy. We analyse how EU foreign assistance is understood in two different intermediary arenas of politicization – elites in different societal sectors and media – within Ukraine, a major recipient of EU aid. By investigat...

This article argues that one way to advance the ‘Normative Power Europe’ (NPE) discourse is to shift the analytical focus to the ‘locals’ – or ‘norm-receivers’ – rather than to ‘norm-senders/makers’. The analysis examines the range of locals’ reactions – from learning to adaptation or rejection of norms – and explains the factors behind those react...

This article proposes a conceptual model that factors external and internal drivers behind external perceptions in IR and allows to trace their interaction across geographical distances argued by social identity theory (Moles and Rohmer, 1978) and evolution across historical distances defined by historical geography (Braudel, 1989). This article us...

Britain’s referendum decision (Brexit) to leave the European Union (EU) in June 2016 resulted in political and economic uncertainty in Britain, Europe and around the world. The unprecedented scale of the UK’s decision to leave the EU and uncertainty that followed the referendum meant that much of the speculation was emotionally loaded. Adding to th...

This article contributes to the theorisation of collaborative public diplomacy by introducing a perceptual approach. Engaging with the collaborative diplomacy paradigm developed to conceptualise public diplomacy in the context of non-traditional security threats and conflicts, as well as nation building, the article explores and compares perception...

While the (upcoming) withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) has been heavily discussed in Europe, this debate revolves mainly around the future of the UK and UK-EU relations. By contrast, little attention has been paid to the reactions of third countries and the effect of their perceptions on the role of the changing EU...

This Special Issue seeks to better understand the role of communication and perception in EU crisis diplomacy. In a recent Special Issue in this journal, Catarina Kinnvall, Ian Manners and Jennifer Mitzen argue that, “ … the greatest security challenge facing people across Europe is not physical, despite the threats of Putin and ISIS, but is a sens...

The role of newsmakers as intermediaries in the shaping of external perceptions and reception of narratives advanced by different actors remains sparse in EU studies. This contribution fills this gap and addresses the personal images of the EU of newsmakers. We contribute to the understanding of those personal perceptions and their link to professi...

The power of digital technology to shape the world in the twenty-first century is undeniable. States and non-state actors use digital tools in order to compete for international attention, attract partners, gain legitimacy and secure influence. In the quest to project an image of an attractive, credible and capable actor on the global stage, diplom...

A small but growing literature has started to analyse the European Union (EU) ‘as an effective peacemaker’. We make a contribution to this field by investigating EU mediation effectiveness in the Russia–Ukraine conflict. The focus is on perceptions of effectiveness. Based on information from semi-structured interviews, we compare EU self-images wit...

This Chapter introduces theoretical and methodological frameworks used to explore the images and perceptions of the EU in the eyes of ten important global actors, the EU’s strategic partners. Spanning four continents, these ten—the BRICS together with the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Mexico—are of profound significance to the EU: in economics...

This book explores the images and perceptions of the EU in the eyes of their Strategic Partners. Spanning four continents, these ten important global actors – the BRICS together with the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Mexico – are of profound significance to the EU in economics, politics, security and global governance. In 2015, the volume’s e...

This article focuses on how the European Union's (EU) mediation activities during the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts are perceived by local elites. Our analysis is based on recent interviews with decision makers in Ukraine, Israel and Palestine. Consistent with this special issue, we investigate perceptions of EU roles, strategies an...

This article provides a reflection on the communication phase in a narrative’s cycle. It explores and compares NATO narratives communicated by influential press in NATO’s five Asia-Pacific strategic partners (16 media outlets observed on a daily basis between February–July 2015). The analysis traces NATO narratives communicated to broader society o...

In a world characterized by shifts in global power, NATO’s 10 partnerships – in Europe as well as elsewhere – are critical for the organization. Yet the question of how the Alliance’s Global Partners perceive NATO in the context of cooperative security, collective defense, and crisis management – including its goals, operational capacity, functiona...

Positioned within the multidisciplinary scholarly fields of political psychology, our analysis follows an interdisciplinary approach, linking the study of EU images (from international relations (IR), political science and EU Studies) to the notion of conceptual metaphors (cognitive linguistics). Our research uses a novel empirical tool – a four-ti...

The EU has consistently struggled to forge a foreign policy narrative which promotes internal cohesion and supports the EU's efforts to exert international influence. The 2016 EU Global Strategy is the latest iteration of collective efforts to tie strategy and purpose to the EU's coherent identity in the world. This study compares the EU's strategi...

This article approaches the subject of the global recognition of the term ‘Normative Power Europe’ in external energy governance by engaging with the concept of strategic narratives. The article considers reactions to the European Union (EU) as a normative energy actor within a tripartite scheme of strategic narrative formation, projection and rece...

This article probes into scope conditions for image change, investigating what changes in Russian images of the European Union (EU) have taken place as a result of the Russian–Ukrainian crisis. The crisis, a catalytic event, has been surrounded by uncertainty and strong emotions and is seen as a potential historical watershed in EU–Russian relation...

While energy issues are a priority topic in international affairs, the global governance structure of energy policy is characterized by institutional segmentation as well as fragmentation and can be classified as dysfunctional. In addition emerging powers are playing key roles. Is the EU policy within the energy landscape one of accommodation or en...

This analysis tackles a previously understudied topic—the ebb and flow of ideas towards the European Union (EU) as a ‘Normative Power’ found in an external society. It asks three questions. How can particular visions about a foreign policy actor—the EU in our case—be activated and disseminated in societies beyond the Union’s borders? Who are the ke...

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 integ...

In this conclusion, we aim to bring together norm diffusion dimensions such as intentional v. incidental; internal v. external; power and domestic circumstances with ‘adoption, adaptation, resistance and rejection’ outcomes. The logic underlying this collection suggests that there is a movement from outcomes like ‘adoption’ toward ‘adaptation’, ‘re...

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’ o...

Involvement with Asia is heralded as one of the principal areas of action for the external affairs of the European Union (EU), both through region-to-region agreements (such as ASEM and EU-ASEAN relations) as well as on a country-to-country basis. However, a number of commentators have noted that the EU’s dialogue with Asia is becoming dysfunctiona...

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?...

This interdisciplinary work presents a conceptual framework and brings together constructivist and rationalist accounts of how EU norms are adopted, adapted, resisted or rejected. These chapters provide empirical cases and critical analysis of a rich variety of norm-takers from EU member states, European and non-European states, including the rejec...

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 scrutinizin...

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 Union's borders. This analysis explores the relationsh...

Image and reputation are valuable commodities in international relations. Not only do they help to attract business, elicit respect and convey influence to foreign partners, but they also hark back to the feeling of pride and identity among domestic audiences (van Hamm, 2008). This forces state actors to ‘pay more attention to the politics of credi...

In 2014, global competition for the role of’ superpower’ continues unabated. While the 20th century was widely held to be the ‘American century’, since the global financial crisis, the world has been characterized more by fractures than by hegemonic fixtures. The dust has not yet settled from this period of dramatic geopolitical shifting and ‘the e...

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, expe...

Perceptions matter. Since the 1981 European Council London Report, where the then foreign ministers of the EU10 committed themselves to ‘seek[ing] increasingly to shape events and not merely to react to them’ (CVCE, n.d., p.2), the role of the European Union (EU) in international affairs has been critically observed. A combination of modest success...

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 detai...

This paper focuses on the public diplomacy (PD) practices of the EU-a supranational regional organisation confronted with two distinct challenges. First, the EU aims to reform its external action in order to become a global power and leader in the changing multipolar world. Second, it purports to fight the ongoing economic crisis that not only weak...

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 hi...

Using nuanced and specific to each geographical context news media and public opinion data from a trans-national comparative research project ‘The EU in the Eyes of Asia-Pacific’ (2002-on going), paper draws together a number of common comparative themes from the seven case-studies of EU external perceptions in Asia: Japan, China, South Korea, Indi...

As this volume moves from data measurement to data interpretation, this chapter tackles one of the most controversial ways of deciphering messages through the interpretation of visual imagery. As founding members of the transnational comparative research project The European Union through the Eyes of Asia-Pacific,1 we are interested in the methodol...

This chapter critically analyses the extent to which the EU’s unique experience of regionalism has been appreciated outside its borders. In particular, it explores external reflections of the European project, taking into consideration Asian elites’ reaction. Three levels of Asian regional integration are considered, where a regional organisation i...

This paper contributes to the debate on the multidimensional phenomenon of Asian regional integration. Considering one case study – a regional grouping known as 'ASEAN+3' – this paper offsets it against relevant achievements on the European continent. Admitting that direct application of the EU's model to the ASEAN+3 frame-works is fruitless, this...

Globalization and changing global architecture (i.e. the emergence of new players, new ‘soft’ roles for traditional ‘hard’ powers, and the ever-increasing popularity of a ‘soft’ power (Elgström, 2010: online)) are giving international relations and diplomacy worldwide a more intense focus on public diplomacy (PD). Successful PD, defined as ‘an inte...

While there is growing scholarly interest in returned and cyclical migration, and on young adult cultural or adventure seeking migration, there is still a lack of systematic empirical insights into how the experiences of being abroad, and after return, are mediated by exposure to different cultural environments. Addressing this conceptual and empir...

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 per...

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 intersecti...

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...

This paper attempts to demonstrate the construction of political and media narratives in their diachronical circulation of ideas about the role and place of the Supreme Law in the life of a newly independent and equally newly democratic Ukraine. In particular, this study aims to reconstruct Ukraine's legal portrait through a detailed consideration...

External construction of the European unity idea is an under-researched topic in EU scholarship. This paper explores the potential of return migration from the EU to third countries to the study and practice of EU public diplomacy and external relations. Attempting to conceptualise the phenomenon of return migration within theories of public diplom...

Asia and Europe have become increasingly interconnected over the last few decades; this growth in mutual interest is due largely to their economic, political, cultural, and historical ties to one another. Due to the deepening relationship between the two regions, it seems natural to ask, “How is the European Union perceived in Asia?” This question...

Addressing an under-researched theme of international images and perceptions of the EU, this paper scrutinizes the framings of the Union endorsed in the news media and expressed by the general public in the two East Asian OECD countries - Japan and South Korea. Conclusions indicate that the EU's importance and presence is often underestimated in th...

This paper aims to analyse the phenomenon of neo-regionalism in Central- Eastern Europe (CEE) identified in this research as a phenomenon of geo-politico- economical co-existence that represents a new form of multidimensional integration in the chosen area. Such a definition is primarily based on the recognition of states as political actors, rathe...

This chapter continues one of the core themes of this book, by looking at perceptions of Europe, and of the European Union (EU), from the outside. The section offers a framework which helps to analyse selected news reporting surrounding European integration and the European Union in New Zealand. It investigates the ways in which the presentation of...

In a globalising world, foreign places and events cease being remote and irrelevant and, in this sense, ‘move closer’ to home. National news media play an important role in this process. This paper is a case study of how national print media frame international actors and the interactions between them. More specifically, the paper investigates how...

  ‘European identity’ is as much a contested concept as is the role of the European Union in foreign affairs. This article combines the two concepts and introduces a third variable, ‘the Other’, in order to address the following questions: How do non-Europeans perceive the EU on the world stage? Is a tentative identity as a mediator in foreign affa...

With the advent of European unity, understandings of the terms ‘Europe’ and ‘European’ have become even more complicated than they were before. A contested concept within its borders, how is ‘Europe’ understood and seen from the outside? This paper deals with the under-researched issue of public perceptions of the European Union (EU) outside its bo...