The Digitalization of EU Public Diplomacy: the pandemic crisis and beyond

Even though the aim of managing the international environment remains the same, there some key shifts in the practice of NPD, including: the increasing involvement of non-state actors (NGOs, citizens etc.), the use of real-time technologies (especially the Internet), the blurring of domestic and international news spheres, the adoption of strategies based on nation branding and network communicati. [...] 7 The Digitalization of EU Public Diplomacy: the pandemic crisis and beyond Q1: Has the EU exploited the benefits of digitalization? Q2: Ιn what ways did the EEAS in particular respond to the digital and pandemic-driven challenges in the context of NPD? Q3. [...] In the United States, President Trump started a blame game by using the “Chinese virus” label with the intention of discrediting China with regard to the origin of the pandemic and the lack of transparency in the initial phase of the pandemic outbreak. [...] 44 Although, over the years, the institutions have approved and adopted a significant number of citizen participation processes (such as the European Ombudsman, the European Citizens Initiative, the Commission’s Public Consultations, the Citizens' Dialogues, and Public Petitions to the European Parliament), the view remains that the EU is distant and closed to its citizens. [...] How has overconfidence in its own charm and undermined model distorted and undermined the EU's perspective on itself and the rest of the world? Why the EU's did the liberal expectation that the EU could transform its immediate neighborhood and the perspective “rest” prove illusory? Self-confidence and a belief in, and overestimation of, the superiority of on itself and "European culture" and liber.