EU understandings of its image as a norms supporter and their relevance for EU policies

Policy is formulated based on what decision-makers believe, not necessarily on what is. The European Union’s (EU) foreign policy is no exception. Yet we know little about how EU officials and institutional representatives perceive how the EU and its foreign policy are viewed by interlocutors abroad, or how these meta-perceptions shape their preferences for diplomatic instruments. This article revives earlier research from the 1950s and 1970s on external perceptions to theorize foreign policy-making as a reflexive process shaped by perceived reputational standing, using updated methodological tools. We modernize Q-methodology and combine it with original survey data to capture how EU representatives construe the Union’s external image and how these perceptions inform their diplomatic preferences. Focusing on democracy promotion in the EU’s Eastern Neighborhood, our analysis shows that respondents who believed the EU was seen as lacking strategic coherence or normative authority were less supportive of assertive or confrontational democracy promotion instruments. These findings highlight a reflexive, perception-driven dynamic in foreign policy preference formation, linking how the EU is viewed abroad to how its representatives understand legitimate and effective diplomacy.