'Market Power Europe' strategic narrative and its perception in East Africa

Theory of strategic narratives assumes that these narratives are strategic tool, which states seek to mobilise to gain influence and shape the behaviour of third parties. This is true not only for military and political power, but also for international political economy. Regional integration (regionalism) is one of possible economic domains where strategic narratives play an important role. The US, the EU, and China represent three poles of the global economy. These poles interact and cooperate one with each another, but also with other world regions. While in mutual relations power is more or less balanced, when dealing with other regions, there is a big power imbalance. Strategic narratives are part of this imbalance: the stronger partner clearly formulates its interests and goals (for example in trade relations), tries to persuade the weaker partner to adopt these goals and also expects the weaker partner to do so. During the Cold War, the EU presented itself as a Civilian Power Europe, which expressed its non-military character and respect for social values. After the Cold War, this label lost some of its normative strength and some scholars assume that the EU currently represents rather a Market Power Europe based on its unprecedented economic success as a consequence of deepening and widening regional integration. However, the EU is not the only global actor to construct its global image on economic basics. China also constructs its global image on economic basics, particularly after the global economic crisis in the last decade. Similarly, the US does the same, albeit to a lesser degree. On the other side, the EU does not interact with other actors strictly in economic terms. This is very interesting with respect to economic integration in Africa. It is obvious that all three parts of the global Triad pursue different approaches vis-á-vis Africa. The EU supports regional integration. However, it constructs African regions on its own and does not respect existing African regional groupings (at least in some cases). European efforts result in the so-called interregionalism, a formalized economic partnership between two global regions. Contrarily, China deals with African states on a strictly bilateral basis. Finally, the US seems less interested in this question as their trade preferential regime (AGOA) is focusing on Africa as a whole, while trade and investment framework agreements (TIFA) are signed on a bilateral or regional basis. All three superpowers have different visions of global economic governance. What should interest us, is the perception of these strategic narratives in Africa itself. However, this topic remains underdeveloped. My presentation consists of two parts. In the first part, I will put down a theoretical framework linking together concepts of strategic narratives, Market Power Europe and inter-regionalism. In the second part, I will present an empirical analysis of perception of the EU´s strategic narratives (also with reference to the US and Chinese strategic narratives) in the East African Community, based on a study of local newspapers and on formal and informal interviews in member countries of the EAC.