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Ian Manners, photo.

Ian Manners

Professor | Excellent Teaching Practitioner

Ian Manners, photo.

The 'Difference Engine': : Constructing and Representing the International Identity of the European Union

Author

  • Ian Manners
  • Richard Whitman

Summary, in English

The purpose of this article is to develop more fully the notion of the international identity of the European Union (EU) in world politics. We will attempt to balance our previous focus of work on the "active dimension' of the EU' s attempts to "assert its identity on the international scene'; by looking at the "reflexive dimension'; of the EU's international identity from a more sociological perspective. Our article will argue that the distinctive polity perspectives and role representations of the EU can be thought of as a form of "difference engine'; which drives the construction and representation of the EU's international identity. Like Babbage's original difference engine, the EU's international identity is not a multiplier of difference, exaggerating the dissimilarities between the EU and the rest of the world through the generation of a new European supranational identity, but functions on the basis of addition - by adding an …

Publishing year

2003-01-01

Language

English

Pages

380-404

Publication/Series

Journal of European Public Policy

Volume

10

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Routledge

Topic

  • Political Science

Keywords

  • Construction
  • Difference
  • European Union
  • International Identity
  • Reflexive
  • Representation

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1350-1763