Israeli Development Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa

Karolina Zielińska is currently a research fellow in the Israel Research programme at the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw, Poland.

"The last decade saw increasing cooperation between Israel and many actors in the world, including ones that once were considered its enemies. One of the least covered aspects of this tendency are warming ties with the sub-Saharan Africa’s countries. The book contributes substantially to tracking and explaining this process. The Author provides us with a very detailed assessment of Israeli engagement with African partners and its future potential. The work is also important to the general study of the Jewish state’s soft power." - Dr Artur Skorek, Jagiellonian University, Poland."This is a comprehensive study of Israeli development assistance to Sub-Saharan African states covering a 50-year period (1956-2016), with some mild updates reaching to the beginning of 2019. It is cast in a broad, realistic neo-liberal conceptual framework which seeks to understand much of the ongoing relations between states in pragmatic terms and, specifically, as a by product of the capacity to muster "soft-power" to enhance reciprocity in the international arena.…the result is a meticulous, detailed work with refreshing information on the scope and character of Israeli technical assistance projects in Africa during the past three decades." - Prof. Naomi Chazan, The Academic College of Tel Aviv - Yafo, Israel."Israel’s size, in terms of population and geography is massively over-represented in the international media. As the holy land of two major world religions and the homeland of a people who have suffered centuries of oppression, culminating in the Holocaust, the world’s attention is very much on Israel. Equally, the hostility of the Islamic world (in general) to the country is and has been a dominant theme since the State of Israel’s inception. Israel has a remarkable ability to induce both feelings of empathy, admiration, respect, and awe, but also antagonism and hatred. This dualistic approach to the country by different elements of international society complicates its foreign policy and Israel, perhaps more than any other nation, has had to work hard to promote itself at the global level.…Israel has the potential to become a regional soft-power player. (…) Israel’s highly developed science and technology industry, including its hospitals, universities, high-techs and laboratories, is looked upon as a role model. Israel’s advanced fields can be leveraged in order to improve relationships and deepen interchange with Africa." - Prof. Ian Taylor, University of St. Andrews, UK.

• Introduction Chapter 1 – Theoretical basis and key definitions Chapter 2 – Foreign policy of the State of Israel Chapter 3 – Soft power of the state of Israel as a resource for development aid and public diplomacy Chapter 4 – Israeli development aid Chapter 5 – Israeli public diplomacy Chapter 6 – Geopolitical considerations affecting Israeli relations with Sub-Saharan Africa countries Chapter 7 – International behaviours of Sub-Saharan beneficiaries Chapter 8 – Development aid to Sub-Saharan Africa countries as an element of Israeli soft-power