The Public Diplomacy Role of the EEAS: Crafting a Resilient Image for Europe

Abstract

Most international actors, but especially the EU in recent years, face crises and suffer from ‘bad press’ from time to time. If soft power — defined as attractive or co-optive power — is reliant on external audiences’ perceptions, and is most effective when there is a long-term strategy, the EU’s image resilience in the face of challenges is key to its practical standing in the international system. After the Lisbon Treaty’s implementation, resilience became a buzzword in Brussels (Hauck, 2012). The European Commission defined it as, ‘the ability of an individual, a household, a community, a country or a region to withstand, to adapt, and to quickly recover from stresses and shocks’ (COM(2012) 586 final). While many EU diplomats are focused on how to help the developing world become resilient in the face of political instability, natural and man-made disasters, security threats, poverty, ethnic conflict, and so on, they might also be expected to apply the concept of resilience to understanding the image of the very actor they represent.¹ In fact, surprisingly, the growing literature on public diplomacy (PD) neglects the importance of image resilience. It tends to focus instead on an actor’s image during a specific time period. This chapter argues, however, that the resilience of an actor’s image over time is just as important as the strength of its image at any given point in time. The chapter addresses the potential role of the European External Action Service (EEAS) in crafting such a resilient image for the EU through strategically focused public diplomacy. Of course, there are many issues that shape the EU’s image externally — good or bad policies, successful or failed execution of these policies, how the EU functions as an actor, and so on — but public diplomacy can be a useful tool in creating attractive narratives about the positive aspects of these realities.