EU digital public diplomacy in Southeast Asia during the COVID19 pandemic

This article explores whether and how the EU projected a digital form of public diplomacy in Southeast Asia during the COVID19 pandemic through its vaccine policy. Using Twitter (now X) data from the EU delegations and ambassadors in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, and applying a post-Foucauldian epistemology, the article argues that a vaccine-focused EU digital public diplomacy sustained the central role of the EU and the projection of a normatively positive EU identity in the region.