Conflicting Role Conceptions? The European Union in Global Politics1

Abstract

Bengtsson, Rikard and Ole Elgstrom. (2011) Conflicting Role Conceptions? The European Union in Global Politics. Foreign Policy Analysis, doi: 10.1111/j.1743-8594.2011.00157.x This article utilizes role theory for analysing the role(s) of the European Union (EU) in global politics. Specifically addressing the interplay of the EU’s own role perception and the role expectations held by other actors, the article contributes two case studies of the role(s) of the EU in relation to two important but different actor groupings—Eastern Europe including Russia and the ACP countries in the developing world, respectively. The analysis points to the tensions that exist between self-perceptions and the perceptions of the EU’s counterparts in Eastern Europe and the developing world, and how these tensions influences the interaction between the actors.