Recent changes in the European Union’s (EU) regional and global environment triggered academic revision of the concept of the EU international actorness. A trend is emerging to analyse the EU through the prism of geopolitics, which is often presented as an opposition to the dominating Normative Power Europe approach. This article argues for a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to the EU’s power. By applying Barnett and Duvall’s (2005) taxonomy of power to EU foreign policy analysis, the study focuses on compulsory, institutional, structural and productive types of power employed by the EU towards Armenia. In a second step, it is contended that since power is a relational concept, it can be better accounted for when analysed from the point of view of policy receiver. To this end, two questions are addressed: how are the different types of power exercised by the EU in the Eastern Partnership region perceived in Armenia? And what explains these perceptions? The findings show that all four types of power are perceived as seriously limited in Armenia, institutional power being the most successful.
European Foreign Affairs Review