Global Value Chains and Nigeria’s Industrial Policy Diplomacy: Negotiating Integration in a Fragmented World Economy

This dissertation examines Nigeria's industrial policy diplomacy in the context of global value chain (GVC) restructuring, developing an original account of how Nigeria has attempted to negotiate its integration into GVCs in the automotive, pharmaceutical, and digital services sectors, and how these efforts intersect with bilateral and multilateral trade diplomacy. Global value chains represent the dominant organisational form of international production, and a state's position within GVCs determines its industrialisation trajectory and international economic leverage. Nigeria's industrial policy, embodied in the National Industrial Revolution Plan and successor frameworks, seeks to move up GVCs from raw material exporter to manufactured goods supplier, requiring diplomatic engagement with lead firms, home governments, and international standard-setting bodies. Drawing on GVC theory, economic diplomacy theory, and developmental state frameworks, this study employs a multi-case qualitative analysis of Nigeria's GVC integration diplomacy in three sectors from 2015 to 2024. Primary data are drawn from Ministry of Industry policy documents, bilateral investment treaties related to target sectors, interviews with Nigerian industrial policymakers and private sector executives, and GVC mapping data from the OECD Trade in Value Added database. The dissertation's theoretical contribution introduces the concept of asymmetric GVC diplomacy to describe the structural conditions under which developing state industrial diplomacy operates and the strategic repertoires available within these constraints. Keywords: global value chains, industrial policy, Nigeria, economic diplomacy, trade strategy.