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This book investigates Nigeria's soft power capabilities in West Africa, demonstrating the extent to which the power of attraction may serve the country's foreign policy interests.
With the increasing popularity of internationally acclaimed cultural outputs, including afrobeat, Nollywood, and charismatic Pentecostalism, and a foreign policy disposition that is altruistic and sparsely transactional, there is increasing interest in how these soft power attributes influence perceptions of Nigeria in Africa. Drawing on extensive original research in Ghana and Liberia, this book highlights the attractive and unattractive elements of Nigeria's soft power potential. In so far as it makes the case for Nigeria's soft power in West Africa, it also discusses the challenges encumbering the effective deployment of the full range of Nigeria's soft power capabilities in the operationalization of its African policy.
This book is a timely contribution to prevailing scholarly discussions about the nature and utility of soft power in Africa. It will be of interest to both Africanists and researchers of international relations, foreign policy, and political science more broadly.
List of contents
Dedication List of Tables List of Figures Forward Acknowledgement Abbreviations. Chapter 1. Introduction. Chapter 2: Soft Power: Theoretical, Conceptual, and Methodological Perspectives. Chapter 3. Classical Realism and Soft Power. Chapter 4. The West African Context. Chapter 5. Interrogating Nigeria’s Soft Power Potential. Chapter 6. Nigeria’s Foreign Policy Behaviour in West Africa. Chapter 7. Elite Attitudes towards Nigeria in Liberia and Ghana. Chapter 8. Foreign Policy Outcomes as a Measure of Soft Power Capability. Chapter 9. Conclusion
About the author
Fidel Abowei is a visiting lecturer at the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, University of Buckingham, United Kingdom.
Summary
This book investigates Nigeria’s soft power capabilities in West Africa; demonstrating the extent to which the power of attraction may serve the country’s foreign policy interests.
