ABSTRACT
Despite the adoption of digital technologies by the European External Action Service (EEAS), few studies to date have evaluated how the EEAS uses digital technologies to obtain public diplomacy goals. This chapter sought to address this important gap by analysing the EEAS’s activities on Twitter. Using the theoretical prism of the digital society, the chapter investigated the EEAS’s ability to practise near real-time diplomacy and create a distinct online brand for the European Union. An analysis of more than 100 tweets found that the EEAS promotes the brand of ‘Europe United’. This brand depicts the EU as a single diplomatic and political actor, which seeks to promote a shared vision of the world and a single foreign and security policy. In this manner, the European dream comes to life on the Twitter channel of the EEAS. Yet, this chapter also found that the EEAS is unable to practise near real-time diplomacy as EU policy statements, and reactions to world events, must be agreed upon by all member states. As such, the offline structure of the EU has a detrimental effect on the EEAS’s ability to leverage Twitter towards public diplomacy ends.
