The EU as a Global Digital Actor: Image and Reality of the EU’s external digital policy towards the US

This research project closes a research gap by analysing the EU’s global actorness in the digital sphere. Scrutinising the EU’s way of dealing with digital affairs vis-à-vis the United States adds to our understanding of the EU as global digital actor: How does the EU present itself and how is it perceived as a global digital actor by the US? As an actor driven by norms or by its own interests? Which norms and interests are relevant within the EU’s external digital policy towards the US? What role do geopolitics play? The methodology builds on a qualitative approach comprising qualitative coding and content analysis of official EU documents and expert interviews with EU-insiders and outsiders. Based on this analysis, the EU is then allocated to one of four ideal types concerning the orientation towards norms or interest on two dimensions, projected (analysis of EU-documents) and perceived (analysis of expert interviews) orientation of the EU’s external digital policies: coherent normative actor (representation as normative, perception as normative), unexpected normative actor (representation as realist, perception as normative), unexpected realist actor (representation as normative, perception as realist), coherent realist actor (representation as realist, perception as realist). It will also be interesting to see the differences between the EU’s external digital policy towards a digital leader like the US versus the EU’s external digital policy towards a digital laggard, such as Africa. Those differences will also shortly be presented based on prior research with regards to the EU’s external digital policy towards Africa, which showed the relevance of the presence of other digital geopolitical actors in Africa for the EU’s external digital policy.