Publication date:
21 August 2015Length of book:
144 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739195666
The book draws on some of the scholarship in perception studies and “Normative Power Europe” theory. The study of perceptions, although dating back to the mid-1970s, is gaining renewed currency in recent years both in international relations, in general, and in European Union studies, in particular. And yet, despite the significance of external perceptions of the European Union, there is still a lack of theoretical forays into this area as well as an absence of empirical investigations of actual external role conceptions. These lacunae in scholarly work are significant, since how the European Union is perceived outside its borders, and what factors shape these perceptions, are crucial for deepening the theory of “Normative Power Europe.” The book analyzes Israeli perceptions towards “Normative Power Europe,” the European Union, and NATO through five themes that, the book argues, underscore different dimensions of key Israeli conceptions of “Normative Power Europe” and NATO. The book seeks to contribute to the existing research on the European Union’s role as a “normative power,” the Union’s external representations, and on Israeli-European Union relations more broadly.
Pardo…is the most prominent of these Israeli researchers, and his latest book is therefore a most welcome addition to the field. Pardo’s main contribution is that he connects his own findings on external Israeli perceptions of the EU, Europe more generally, and individual member countries to the literature on the EU’s normative power. Pardo has correctly identified a certain lacuna, which he fills with many years of careful research, both quantitative and qualitative, on Israeli perceptions of the EU…. [T]his book is a most valuable contribution to the discourse, and its author remains a towering figure in the academic literature on EU–Israel relations.