Spain – IPDGC Smart Power

Solidifying Spain’s European State Narrative

April 14, 2022May 10, 2022Europe6 Comments

By Miranda Ewald, MA Global Communications ‘22

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez meets with Moroccan King Mohammed VI, Moncloa (REUTERS)

Spain and Morocco’s Shifting Relationship

Until recently, tensions between Spain and Morocco had been building for decades, particularly over Spain’s lack of recognition for Morocco’s autonomy in the Western Sahara. Spain and Morocco, along with Mauritania, signed a tripartite agreement in 1975 that aimed at stabilizing relations in the Western Sahara region. However, Spain had not formalized or honored its political and diplomatic ties to Morocco. In 2021 Spain welcomed nationalist movement leader seeking independence from Morocco, Brahim Ghali, into its country despite him also being wanted in Spain for crimes against humanity. In retaliation, Morocco then opened its border in May 2021 to Ceuta, a Spanish autonomous city in Morocco, leading to many trying to illegally enter the city and chaos erupting.

Despite the historical tension and recent challenges between the two countries, as of this month, Spain has decided to realign its relationship with Morocco. On March 18 of this year, Spain announced through its foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, that it considers Morocco’s proposal regarding the Western Sahara to be “the most serious, realistic, and credible” plan to de-escalating tensions in the region. The plan involves giving Morocco limited autonomy in the Western Sahara, a region it annexed in 1975, which is inhabited largely by the Polisario Front independence movement. Spain’s backing of the proposal symbolizes a turning point in its foreign affairs with Morocco.

Spain’s Evolving Identity

Spain’s strategic messaging of its newly defined stance with Morocco highlights how Spain is attempting to develop the narrative that it is a cooperative democracy and international partner. Since the end of General Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, the country has worked diligently to democratize and become part of the international system. This however conflicts with Spain’s imperialistic history with Morocco, and until recently, apathetic nature towards mending lingering tensions. In order for Spain to shed its dictatorial and imperialistic ways and prove its relevance as a democratic actor, it needed to readjust its relationship with Morocco. For example, when Spain invited Brahim Ghali into its country, Morocco began portraying Spain as indifferent to crimes against humanity. Spain could not let Morocco continue to capitalize on the meeting with Ghali to maintain its reputation as a democratized state. Moreover, for Spain to appear as a collaborative foreign power, it could not continue to ignore its diplomatic agreements with Morocco in the Western Saharan. Amends needed to be made with Morocco to prevent anything from undermining Spain’s legitimacy and relationships in the international system

Spain made the announcement of the backing of Morocco’s proposal through its highest foreign affairs official to validate its stance further. Albares emphasized the commitment even further by stating that Spain is looking to strengthen cooperation particularly regarding migration in the Western Sahara. Spain’s alignment with Morocco though symbolizes much more than this. In the spring of 2021, Morocco organized mass migration through Ceuta, a Spanish city on the border of the two countries. The weaponsing of migration outraged Spain, but also the EU, which has established that it desires maintaining a strong relationship with Morocco. For Spain, it is important to appear as a cooperative and loyal state, something it was not under General Franco. Therefore, to project this narrative, Spain needed to begin appearing active in working towards resolution in the Western Sahara.

Implications for Spain’s Repositioning

Spain’s new positioning will have, and has had, many potential implications for the state. Thus far, Spain’s new positioning has led Morocco to reinstate its ambassador to Spain, which it had previously recalled. This, in addition to other comments made by Morocco, portrays that Morocco is pleased with Spain’s new alignment and is open to working with the state. The EU has also established that it welcomes Spain’s change in stance with Morocco. While Spain has strengthened some of its relationships through this decision, it has also had some negative implications as well. For example, since the Polisario Front is backed by Algeria, Algeria removed its ambassador to Spain because of its decision. Besides this damaging foreign relations between Spain and Algeria, it could also have economic consequences for Spain. Algeria supplies gas to Spain, and given the crisis in Ukraine, Algeria’s supply has become ever more important. Spain could risk increasing gas prices even further if relations are damaged even more with Algeria.

Polisario demonstrators protest against Spain’s support for Morocco’s autonomy plan in Madrid, (AFP).

Going forward, Spain’s relations with other states will shift as well. Some states support Morocco’s proposal and will embrace Spain’s new positioning, such as the US. However, there are other states and international organizations that believe a referendum should occur in the region to decide who is in control. To illustrate its identity as a collaborative and credible democracy, Spain should continue its use of elite officials as spokespeople, remain loyal to and supportive of allies and be proactive in discourse around international issues.

For more on the topic by the author, please click here.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not express the views of the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication or the George Washington University.

Confronting Development Challenges with Celebrity [Chef] Diplomacy

March 29, 2013Cultural Diplomacy, Social Media2 Comments

Some of José Andrés’ more than 100,000 twitter followers congratulate him on being named an “Ambassador of the Spanish Brand.”

by Max Entman

In the last decade, the definition of cultural diplomacy has been expanding. This expansion has been especially noticeable in the realm of the culinary arts. The recent launch of the “Diplomatic Culinary Partnership” by the U.S. Department of State is one of many examples of this phenomenon. Though food has featured to some degree in traditional diplomacy for centuries, these new initiatives go beyond state dinners to harness the power of food as an instrument of cultural engagement. Beyond creating sustained cultural engagement around food, these new efforts can also play an important role in raising the profile of policy challenges that align with the interests of a new generation of culinary diplomats.

Why this focus on food now? One key reason is the explosion of the celebrity chef phenomenon during the past decade. Around the world, chefs have stepped out from the behind the stove to become media moguls and full-fledged entertainment personalities. This raises the question of how particular chefs may fit into existing thinking about the impact of so-called celebrity diplomats. Professor Andrew Cooper has done the definitive work in this field. In a recent article on the topic, Cooper suggests that “the feature that does more to define celebrity diplomats than anything else is their focus on access to state leaders and key ministerial and bureaucratic policymakers.” As a result, Cooper argues that only three celebrities – Bono, George Clooney and Angelina Jolie – have achieved true celebrity diplomat status, whereas other politically active celebrities are merely activists. However, the emergence of a variety of renowned chefs as government-affiliated advocates may challenge this assertion.

The person that best personifies this new chef-as-diplomat archetype is José Andrés. Based in DC by way of Asturias, Spain, Andrés is widely credited with popularizing Spanish cuisine in the U.S. In addition to a growing restaurant empire and successful TV shows in the states and in Spain, Andrés is a leading member of the State Department’s American Chef Corps and the founder of World Central Kitchen, a non-profit organization that seeks to combat hunger. Andrés was also recognized recently as an “embajador de la marca de España” (honorary ambassador of the Spanish brand) by the Leading Brands of Spain Forum, a government-affiliated organization.

Caption: Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto was similarly honored for “overseas promotion of Japanese food,” by the Consul General of Japan in New York City.

In both his adopted home and in his country of origin, government officials have taken note of Andrés’ leadership in both the culinary and development fields. For the United States, Andrés is a valuable partner because his gastronomic renown and his personal commitment to addressing development challenges make him a strong non-traditional advocate on development policy issues including the alleviation of hunger. In essence, his fame for haute cuisine can be leveraged to raise the profile of development issues (e.g. clean cookstoves) among audiences that may not be moved to action otherwise. For Spain, as his brand ambassador award suggests, Chef Andrés serves a simpler nation-branding

function by elevating the worldwide prestige of Spanish cuisine. These examples suggest that Andrés

has the very type of access which Professor Cooper says is the defining feature of celebrity diplomats, if perhaps at a lower level than Bono. Though Andrés is the most prominent example, numerous other chefs have developed similar relationships with government leaders that open the potential of their serving as diplomatic actors.

In the piece referenced above, Andrew Cooper concludes by saying “[t]he major questions will be whether the small cluster of top-tier celebrity diplomats will expand, and whether they will supplement their fresh sense of energy with a repertoire of enhanced substantive content.” Although he is best known for his avant-garde interpretations of Spanish cuisine, Andrés’ substantive efforts to combat global hunger and environmental degradation suggest that the expansion of celebrity diplomacy surrounding development policy issues may be starting with chefs.

Baby You Can Drive My Car. Please.

March 7, 2012public diplomacy1 Comment

Americans tend to think—and politicians tell them at almost every opportunity—that theirs is the greatest, richest, freest country in the world. Leaders seem to consider this description so self-evident that they rarely provide evidence, nor do their audiences demand it. A major reason is the absence of truly “global communication” in most American households. Most Americans seem utterly unfamiliar with the public polices, political practices, daily lives and living standards even of this country’s closest allies. When messages about France, Germany, Norway, Spain and even the UK do reach US media, their main purpose is often to disparage these countries—again without much evidence.

A lot could be said about this but for now consider the car. I just spent 6 weeks in Madrid and had time to ponder why so many European cities seem so much more charming and livable than just about any American city. I think it’s got a lot to do with cars, specifically the paucity thereof.

In Madrid, just like DC, there are plenty of wide boulevards, where car traffic is heavy at rush hour. But there are also many, many pedestrian passages, plazas and narrow medieval streets that cars never or rarely traverse. At least in the center, you can walk for several blocks, or sit out at a café on a plaza like the one I lived on (Plaza de la Paja, the oldest in Madrid—see picture) for an hour and not see or hear a car. You can enjoy being outside, as Madrileños do even when it’s cold, soaking in sun and (fairly) fresh air, communing with other people. No need as in DC to will yourself to block out the noise and aesthetic assaults generated by automobiles and trucks. In this dimension, Madrid offers a great, rich (indeed priceless, unobtainable) experience in daily living, one most Americans are not free to enjoy whatever their income level.

Of course there are a hundred reasons for the greater charms of European capitals (not to mention the smaller towns). Some relate to cars and public policy (high gasoline taxes, heavy investment in mass transit enabled in part by far lower investment in military infrastructure), most to history, climate and many more factors.

My points in bringing up cars and comparative living standards are three: 1) The arguments for Americans reducing reliance on cars are numerous and thoroughly familiar to readers of blogs like this: augmenting national security; reducing the trade deficit; cutting the indirect funding that guzzling gas provides to terrorist organizations and nasty regimes; slowing climate change. What’s significant is how marginalized—to the point of invisibility—such reasoning is in the public discourse of 2012.

2) This in part reflects one area where America may indeed be the leader among affluent countries. I’d hypothesize (I’m not sure) that we enjoy the dubious distinction of the greatest isolation of citizens from globally communicated information and globally shared (at least among the wealthy democracies) cultural assumptions. Among many other areas, this manifests itself in the political impossibility of even mentioning the option of raising gasoline taxes to, say, half of what Europeans pay. Gasoline here in Berlin runs about 1.6 Euros, around $2.12, per liter—about $8 a gallon. The difference between that number and what Americans pay is mostly tax.

3) Americans’ isolation from two-way global communication both reflects and reinforces their impoverished sense of such words as “greatest,” “richest,” and “freest” when applied to the US.

I’m not saying this is anyone’s fault. Politicians and media can’t attack conventional notions of the normal until enough citizens share some assumptions and perceptions to make sense of the attacks. But citizens can’t develop such thinking unless their leaders and media provide the basis. If Americans could somehow plug into global communication more than they do now, perhaps the vicious circle might be interrupted.