ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the perception of the European Union identity in international relations by ‘others’ (third countries’ political elites, civil society, think tanks etc.) and the meaning of third parties’ discourse on the European Union’s identity in international relations, especially for the narration on its identity in international relations. The survey is grounded in the post-modern variant of Constructivist perspective of International Relations. The point is the value of that version of Constructivism with its assumption of the possibility to reach knowledge about the reality on the basis of the analysis of the ideational elements of this reality, such as: language, beliefs, imaginations, etc. Methodologically contributors refer to a discourse analysis. It works on official documents, media analysis, speech acts, think-tanks analysis, elite interviews and archival research. The chapter examines how the perceptions of the European Union’s identity and role in the international relations are distributed worldwide in third countries public, civil as well as media discourse.
