US-EU SPYING ALLEGATIONS 2013- A CASE FOR CONSTRUCTIVISM

This article aims to show how the revelations about the United States of America (US) spying on the European Union (2013) represented an occasion for the latter to reiterate its normative power and the particular importance of the transatlantic partnership. Through observation of “acts of social facts essentialization” by the US and EU and by using a constructivist conceptualization of “agent identity” and “international socialization”, the article concludes that the constructivist framework of analysis explains the unfolding of the spying issue. This deductive approach uses the method of discourse and official documents analysis.