As an Ogden Honors College student, I successfully defended a thesis in which I ranked Middle Eastern countries according to their soft power. I took a magnifying glass to a region largely underrepresented on global rankings of soft power. Any mention of the Middle East in conversations of soft power is rare. There is no other soft power ranking that looks exclusively at the Middle East or includes all the states of the region. 

In my soft power ranking of the Middle East, I considered over 50 metrics divided into six sub-indexes of soft power: culture, government, education, enterprise, engagement and digital. My research reveals that Israel holds the most soft power in the region. Israel ranks first in three of the six sub-indexes: education, government and enterprise. The United Arab Emirates follows Israel in the overall ranking but ranks first in the digital sub-index. Turkey, at the number three overall spot, leads the region in culture and engagement. Turkey is often identified as the token Middle Eastern country with a high level of soft power. As my ranking and further analysis of Turkey’s soft power shows, Turkey is no longer the soft power heavyweight in the Middle East. In fact, it appears Turkey's soft power is quickly dissipating due to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s consolidation of power, the declining economy, the dramatic drop in tourism due to increased unrest and security threats, the failed military coup attempt, the dramatic government clampdown and the collapse in infrastructure due to a flood of refugees.