What is the Best Way for a Wealthy State to Engage the World?

The movie Black Panther has been all the rage back in the US for quite some time now, particularly among the black community given its depiction of a wealthy, confident, powerful black country not suffering under the yoke of Western colonialism.  While the concept of Afro-centrism or Afro-futurism as many have termed it, is worthy of note, a bigger theme that goes beyond race comes to mind when watching the movie.  That is the question of whether and how a wealthy nation engages its poorer neighbors.

The fictional state of Wakanda in the film is in that position of strength.  With its almost limitless source of a unique natural resource vibranism, the country leads the world in technological development and standard of living, enjoying lasting peace and prosperity while the rest of the world go through wars and suffering.  The country did so historically through hiding behind a mirage of an underdeveloped third world country.  The isolated autarky, the film suggests, has served the country well until recent years.

Interestingly, the situation facing the fictional Wakanda in the film resonates not so much with Africa today, but is instead very similar to Gulf countries of recent decades.  Flush with cash from almost endless stream of oil, Gulf states enjoy prosperity and peace in a region frequently devastated with wars and instability. Like Wakanda, the absolute monarchs of the Gulf states concentrated on enriching their own people with the money, rather than broadly assisting the rest of the world.

Yet, whether it be fictional Wakanda or the Gulf in real life, great wealth and power can never escape the attention of foreigners seeking a way to be part of it.  How to handle the foreign attention is where Wakanda and the Gulf diverges massively.  In Wakanda, the policy is broadly definable as "anti-immigrant," with leaders in consensus that "foreigners and their problems" need to be kept out to ensure peace of the country.  Even at the end of the film, foreigners are only taught of Wakanda in their own home countries.

The Gulf, on the other hand, chose to bring foreigners into the country, to share in the wealth of the oil boom.  While there are plenty of grim facts about discrimination and mistreatment faced by migrant workers, there is no denying that millions of foreigners working in rich Gulf states helped to sustain their homelands through reducing unemployment and sending billions in much needed remittances.  Unlike Wakanda, the Gulf used foreign expertise rather than shut them out to ensure indigenous development.

Modern sensibilities among wealthy elites, with preference for global cosmopolitanism, would much choose economic openness of the Gulf over autarky of Wakanda, but at the same time, it is difficult to ignore the negative consequences of openness that the Gulf faces today that would make Wakanda be even more convinced of their need to rely on their own people exclusively to keep the country in order.  Specifically, Gulf states are becoming too reliant on foreigners that without them, society would simply collapse.

In the Wakandan mind, such a situation would be unacceptable.  The power of vibranism is so great that if foreigners, with their selfish impure minds, are to use them for great evil, human civilization would be devastated.  For them, such a risk is big enough that keeping foreigners ignorant and completely out is a better choice.  In modern society, that simply labeling of foreigners as potential evil smack of pure racism and xenophobia that just cannot be deeply morally appropriate.

As different characters repeatedly mentioned in the movie, the world is changing, and staying isolated and hidden is no longer a real option.  Engaging with foreigners is the only choice left.  Yet, keeping one's technology, way of life, and culture intact against foreign threat is, albeit deterministic, valid concerns.  For most countries, there will need to be continued trial and error to find that sweet spot of how actively to engage the world, between the two extremes offered by Wakanda and the Gulf.