Public diplomacy looms large in the foreign policies of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Zooming in on these states’ engagement with the African continent, this GIGA Focus Middle East explores the role played by real and alleged non-state actors in autocratic public-diplomacy efforts.
This article seeks to identify ways in which the foreign policy power hierarchy inside the Islamic Republic of Iran can be explained. It uses high-level diplomatic meetings as observable evidence in a novel analytical framework to identify the scope of competition and hierarchies in foreign policy decision-making processes. Results reveal that diplomatic activities of key foreign policy decision makers did not noticeably diverge.
The war against Ukraine has created possibilities for emerging actors in Africa – such as Iran and Turkey – to scale up their engagement with the continent. This Focus deals with the question of how the changing global dynamics are allowing Iran and Turkey to boost their ties across the African continent.
