This paper aims to explore the perception of the EU by other actors within the international arena. It is thus complementary to the previous contributions that analyze the EU and its member states from “internal” perspective focusing on their goals concerning external democratization. This paper, however, looks at the way the EU and its democratization objectives are perceived by other states at the international level and studies whether such perception is compatible with the EU’s own goals. It argues that the fit between EU’s aims abroad (for example external democratization) and perception of its behavior and roles by other states at the international level crucially influence the success of its objectives. Only then can the EU be successful at democracy promotion when it is perceived by the target states as a democratization actor. This paper thus argues that the perception influences the overall outcome of its democracy promotion.
