This paper explores how diplomats and civil servants who serve in EU Delegations make sense of their role in third countries. I show that there is a significant tension between the search for recognition as a ‘normal’, state-like diplomacy on the one hand, and the willingness to perform as a ‘different’ diplomacy whose actions are complementary to those of European member states on the other hand. This willingness is thought of as a strategy to avoid diplomatic stigmatisation. In addition to practices, I rely on the literature on reputation and recognition in social sciences. Reputation is a useful concept, as it highlights the shared nature of diplomatic performances, namely, that the EU’s image depends on both practices of EU professionals and how they are interpreted by both third-country nationals and national diplomatic services of EU member states. The paper builds on preliminary fieldwork interviews in Ottawa and Washington DC.
