This collection examines how the EU is viewed in the two regions at the centre of its geopolitical interest. Focusing on Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, both of which have close and often problematic historical-geographical ties with Europe, the volume provides a critical assessment of how external perceptions from these regions relate to EU policy towards them.

Bringing together a range of internationally renowned scholars, this book provides a conceptual framework for studying the EU's geopolitical role and examines perceptions of the EU in Georgia, Ukraine, Kenya and Senegal. Highlighting both the importance of understanding external viewpoints and the value of comparative research in order to better capture the various facets of the EU's geopolitical role and identity, it is particularly sensitive to persisting unequal power relations and Eurocentrism as well as to the changes in perceptions that have emerged in the wake of financial crisis.

Veit Bachmann is a political geographer and assistant professor in the Department of Human Geography at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany.

Martin Müller is a political geographer and a Swiss National Science Foundation Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Introduction: Global Europa? How, When and to Whom?
PART I: EU IN CRISIS: EXTERNAL RELATIONS AND EXTERNAL PERCEPTIONS
1. Studying External Perceptions of the EU: Conceptual and Methodological Approaches
2. Crafting Europe for its Neighbourhood: Practical Geopolitics in European Institutions
3. A Fading Presence? The EU and Africa in an Era of Global Rebalancing
PART II: PERCEPTIONS OF THE EU AND ITS CRISIS: SELF-PERCEPTIONS AND EXTERNAL PERCEPTIONS FROM GEORGIA, UKRAINE, KENYA AND SENEGAL
4. European Self-Perceptions: The EU's Geopolitical Identity and Role in Official Documents and Speeches
5. Popular and Elite Perceptions of the EU in Georgia
6. United in Disagreement: Perceptions of the EU in Ukraine
7. Kenya-EU relations: Perspectives and Expectations
8. Deconstructing the Myth of African-European 'Partnership' from a Senegalese Viewpoint
Conclusion: Looking from the Outside In ? Looking from the Inside Out