EU normative power stems not just from the values it promotes but the way it promotes them. In Africa, where for decades the EU played a hegemonic role, notions of normative power did not necessarily correspond with reality. Yet notable changes have occurred more recently, with a progressive joint strategy and expanded areas of cooperation. Nonetheless, there is a perception that the EU has lost influence, not just to new players of the Global South, but also with an Africa more willing to challenge Europe’s contradictions and promote its own brand of values and norms. This study will explore the EU’s behaviour in three disparate Southern countries: South Africa (high income), Zambia (middle income) and Malawi (low income), investigating how the EU exercises its still formidable material power and its normative agenda in different contexts, and if failure to reconcile the two has contributed to the loss of influence.
