By Tanner Willis

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the trajectory of everyone’s daily activities around the world. The pandemic led governments to use a new soft power tool, that would eventually be defined as vaccine diplomacy or virus diplomacy. The aim of this tool was to transform or enhance a government’s image as a humanitarian savior, but usually, the actors who used this form of diplomacy aimed it mostly to achieve their existing foreign policy goals.

The SWANA region initially seemed to favor bilateral diplomatic relations to improve regional fragmentations between rivals in hopes of creating a stronger regional collaboration to combat the COVID-19 virus and potentially establish stronger relations in the process.

Iran was one of the first to be hit hard with a very high number of cases, with the limited medical capacity to stalemate the disease. Several countries came to the aid of Tehran including the UAE, Turkey, Qatar, and Kuwait, which were quick to send resources to help. Iran has strained relations with other SWANA countries, but these medical aid shipments opened the door for further talks between these neighbors. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, stated how the online meeting with the UAE created “frank and friendly” talks on bilateral, regional, and global affairs. The same happened with Iran and Turkey, as a phone call allowed positive dialogue on developments in the region despite their history of the rivalry.

Israeli-Palestinian relations, like Turkey and Iran, improved through a phone call between Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Rivlin is quoted saying that cooperation is vital “to ensure the health of both Israelis and Palestinians”. This cooperation allowed Turkey to send aid to Palestine in coordination with Israel. Israel sent aid to Palestine, but after Israel failed to form a government in March 2020, the diplomatic relations between the two were led by health officials, who are credited with the early success and cooperation between Israel and Palestine. This, however, was evanescent, as by July relations began to deteriorate and Israel took a contrary stance by adopting Israeli-only vaccination policies. The new government, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, further annexed 30 percent of the West Bank and increased restrictions on the movement of the Rafah border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. This hindered patients from receiving vital medical assistance and Palestine ultimately relied on other sources of aid through Qatar, Turkey, and China.

The circumstances of the pandemic did help halt some of the fragmented conflicts in the region such as in Yemen. The halt of global affairs driven by the pandemic created a new space for peace negotiations. Saudi Arabia implemented a unilateral ceasefire in hopes to begin political negotiations in the war-torn country. Saudi Arabia contributed a $525 million aid package to Yemen, which was already dealing with one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world prior to the pandemic.

Outside influences have also impacted diplomatic dynamics in the SWANA region; the two biggest influencers are Russia and China. Russia and China were quick to offer their vaccines to counties within the region. Russia was able to use its Sputnik vaccine as a bargaining chip in an Israel-Syria prisoner exchange and Russia gave Palestine the vaccine as well. China similarly distributed its Sinopharm vaccine to the UAE, Morocco, Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq, and Algeria. China adopted new visa policies which granted special acceptance for those vaccinated with the Chinese-made vaccine. Both China and Russia offered to license contracts to self-produce the vaccine that could help distribute throughout the Middle East and Africa. However, despite the fact that both countries have been generous in distributing their vaccine, as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, aid and delivery of the vaccine was vetoed to northwest Syria because the United Nations did not discuss this with the Bashar al-Assad government. This shows both Russia and China’s heavy involvement in all areas of the region.

The COVID-19 pandemic halted all normal activities throughout the world– except our virtual world through information communication technologies (ICT). For some, virtual technology was the only way to be in contact with loved ones, work, education, and healthcare. ICT helped everyone keep up to date with news and the impact of the pandemic, but it also opened another domestic diplomatic tool that governments have greatly exploited; digital surveillance. During the pandemic, digital surveillance increased, as tracking apps to help monitor the virus led citizens to voluntarily but misleadingly give their sensitive personal data to apps and government agencies. Several countries use their own programs or apps to help track people during quarantine, but the laws in place also leave room for human rights privacy violations into extensive tracking of citizens. Those who did not comply with the use of the apps or quarantines could face fines or even imprisonment, and many laws on data protection in the region today are outdated or non-existent. They do not protect citizens from personal data sharing that can occur during cyber-attacks or identity thefts.

This steep incline in digital surveillance opened the door for digital authoritarianism and governments have tried to silence civil activists. SWANA governments have used digital surveillance to halt civil movements, disinformation, and propaganda campaigns. Governments use their control over the ICTs to sway public opinion and counter stories critical of the government. Activists against the SWANA governments have relied on virtual private networks (VPNs) to continue to communicate and spread their message domestically and abroad, but they are met with several challenges, such as a lack of resources to combat hacking and other technical resources.

Due to the pandemic, diplomacy added a new tactic of vaccine diplomacy to its playbook. This soft power tool has been used by countries within the SWANA region both toward each other and has been used by outside actors to push their influence within the region. The pandemic enhanced relations in several bilateral talks, but other countries took an opposing stance to withhold vaccines and aid from rivals. ICTs that have helped everyone stay connected to the world and change the diplomatic dynamics in the region have also given authoritarian SWANA governments more control in tracking, accessing private information, and monitoring how people communicate. The socioeconomic impact of the pandemic on the SWANA region will be foretold in the years to come, as recent years have shown a host of positive, negative, and increasingly complex outcomes.