Middle Powers and Soft-Power Rivalry: Egyptian-Israeli Competition in Africa

• In Event: Migration and Citizenship Debates in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

Scholars of international relations have long recognized the importance of soft power in great powers’ hegemonic designs. In contrast, we know little of middle powers’ employment of non-coercive strategies of attraction and, in particular, how soft power and migration operates in the context of middle-power antagonism. In this article, we put forth two arguments: first, the use of migration as soft power enhances coalition-building strategies for middle powers. Contrary to expectations that states join forces against a shared threat, this particular use of soft power produces an ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’ distinction in target states that unites them in the absence of a common enemy. Second, middle states’ "migration as soft power" strategies are likely to support coalition maintenance if it does not challenge target states’ national interests. Utilizing extensive archival and interview-based data, we examine how soft power featured in Egyptian-Israeli competition across sub-Saharan Africa between 1957 and 1974, in terms of the short-term dispatch of high-skilled Egyptian and Israeli professionals. We demonstrate how migration as soft power operates beyond the context of grand power agenda setting, therefore providing novel evidence for the fundamental importance of high-skilled labour migration in the interplay between interstate antagonism and non-coercion in world politics.

Authors

• Asaf Siniver, University of Birmingham

• Gerasimos Tsourapas, University of Glasgow