Solving Egypt’s Economic Crisis: The Strategic Role of Chinese, Russian, and Egyptian Media Narratives

ABSTRACT This study examined Chinese, Russian, and Egyptian news articles from December 2014 to December 2019 on 18 different native language news sites to determine how countries with close media-state relationships use Egypt’s economic crisis to build narrative alliances and boost national identity. Using a ratio-oriented approach to strategic crisis narratives, this article shows that Scene-driven ratios are instrumental for crisis-ridden countries to rhetorically rebuild their economic order for national audiences and for other countries to forge alliances and boost their national economic identities. Similarities in narrative ratios and shifts between Chinese and Egyptian national media suggest a dual strategy by which China exploits Egypt’s economic crisis to enhance its national identity and depict Egypt as an economic partner in its Road and Belt initiative. Russia’s narrative ratios and shifts highlight Russia’s economic and military actors as the dominant drivers influencing Russian-Egyptian relations, indicating more short-term and self-centered narrative strategies. This article advances ideas about strategic crisis narratives by introducing a framework for theorizing relationships between the (in)consistency of ratios and international actors’ ability to narrate crisis resolutions and elevate their crisis identities and interests for national audiences.