The Ideational Value of Soft Power and the Foreign Policy of African Regional Powers

ABSTRACT

In the past two decades, studies on ‘regional power dynamics’ have emerged detailing the potential leadership role of rising powers across regions. However, contributions on regional powerhood in Africa neglect the utility of ‘soft power’ for conceptualising the foreign policy behaviour of African regional powers. Given the evident incapacity of a single actor to command absolute strength and secure overwhelming influence within its regional sphere, the ideational value of soft power is a relevant consideration for identifying a state in this category. In Africa, only South Africa and Nigeria consistently display this qualifying feature of an Afrocentric foreign policy posture woven around sufficient material preponderance and strong soft power influence. African foreign policy dynamics present a unique illustration of the tangibility of soft power influence in the estimation of regional powerhood. This study addresses the conceptual limitation in most definitions of regional power’s application to the African context and raises the need to introduce the soft power variable in such conceptualisation. I conclude that a complementary regional hegemonic dispensation is evident in Africa where Nigeria, portrayed as a secondary power, is as formidable as South Africa – with both distinguished by the unstable symmetry of their power features.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Olusola Ogunnubi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5005-9519

Notes

1 Prys (2010b) resolved the debate on the conceptual hiatus between regional hegemony and regional power(hood). This study aligns with the author’s position on the former being a constitutive element of the latter.

2 Envelope diplomacy is used by some commentators to refer to the rumoured exchange of money for votes by South Africa. It was widely reported that this diplomatic gesture was decisive in securing the eventual election of Dr Dlamini-Zuma. It will also be recalled that South Africa’s bid ran contrary to the unwritten agreement by Africa’s powerful states not to contest this position.

3 First proposed by Joseph Nye, the concept of soft power is claimed to have three dimensions, namely, culture, political values, and foreign policy (Nye 2004).

4 Popularised by K.J. Holsti, national role conception is ‘the domestically shared views and understandings regarding the proper role and purpose of one’s own state as a social collectivity in the international arena’ (Holsti 1970, 29).

5 Between 2008 and 2017, Nigeria accounted for about 54% of West Africa’s military expenditure while South Africa accounted for 67% of military spending in southern Africa during the same period (Oyewole forthcoming)

6 Despite Nigeria’s front row position, President Buhari pulled out of signing the Trade Agreement to allow for more consultation with local stakeholders in the country.

7 Emmanuel Ayoola and Emmanuel Fagbenle from Nigeria served as Chief Justice of The Gambia from 1983 to 1992 and between 2015 and 2017, respectively.