Weathering the Storm: The European Union’s Strategic Ambiguity on Twitter during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study examines how the European Union (EU) employed strategic ambiguity as a discursive resource to manage its reputational crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. For that purpose, this research analyses tweets in English published by six central authorities of the EU in three different phases of the COVID-19 crisis (pre-crisis, acute crisis, and post-crisis). The findings reveal that during the early stages of the pandemic, characterised by higher uncertainty, European authorities often resorted 232Defence Strategic Communications | Volume 12 | Spring 2023DOI 10.30966/2018.RIGA.12.10to ambiguous tweets through vague metaphors, opaque information, and disjointed messages. By the end of the first COVID-19 wave these authorities progressively constructed a solid narrative that rationalised the pandemic as a challenge reaffirming the EU’s principles and capacities. This study suggests that when the EU faced more external criticism and inner discord among member states, its authorities resorted to ambiguity to strategically mitigate its reputational damage while navigating through conflicting interests in a high-pressure scenario.