Reconceptualising South Africa's international identity : post-apartheid foreign policy in a post-cold war world
type: CreativeWork
description: With the ending of the apartheid regime and the transition to power of a government of national unity, South Africa is now a legitimate member of the international community. It has joined the Organisation of African Unity, the British Commonwealth, and the Southern African Development Community, and it is busily fostering trade links with Europe, North America, the Far East, and Latin America. Its diplomats have worked to mediate conflicts in Angola and Mozambique, and its president is widely seen as an international statesman and a moral leader of almost unprecedented repute. Yet the newÂ· government continues to operate within South Africa's traditional international paradigm and has not yet developed a unique global role that reflects the country's internal "negotiated revolution". As a result, substantial challenges face efforts to forge a new south African approach to the world. From outside the country, forces unleashed by the fall of communism and the rise of a truly global marketplace mark a volatile and uncertain transition in world history. From the inside, political transition has sparked a redefinition of what it means to be South African, but this has not been reflected in new policies. The Foreign Ministry is widely recognised as a bastion of old-guard stalwarts; the ANC and NP have done little to reconcile their past international experiences; and. the information flow on international political and economic trends has barely improved since April 1994, leaving interest groups and private citizens in the new democracy generally uninformed and therefore unable to help pressure policy. The result is a foreign policy over the past year that has had little vision and few cohesive threads, and has left a score of unresolved issues. The 'new' South Africa's relations with Cuba and China, its policies on illegal immigration, and regional development plans are all issues that require visionary, decisive leadership but for which none has yet been provided. Wha…
abstract: With the ending of the apartheid regime and the transition to power of a government of national unity, South Africa is now a legitimate member of the international community. It has joined the Organisation of African Unity, the British Commonwealth, and the Southern African Development Community, and it is busily fostering trade links with Europe, North America, the Far East, and Latin America. Its diplomats have worked to mediate conflicts in Angola and Mozambique, and its president is widely seen as an international statesman and a moral leader of almost unprecedented repute. Yet the newÂ· government continues to operate within South Africa's traditional international paradigm and has not yet developed a unique global role that reflects the country's internal "negotiated revolution". As a result, substantial challenges face efforts to forge a new south African approach to the world. From outside the country, forces unleashed by the fall of communism and the rise of a truly global marketplace mark a volatile and uncertain transition in world history. From the inside, political transition has sparked a redefinition of what it means to be South African, but this has not been reflected in new policies. The Foreign Ministry is widely recognised as a bastion of old-guard stalwarts; the ANC and NP have done little to reconcile their past international experiences; and. the information flow on international political and economic trends has barely improved since April 1994, leaving interest groups and private citizens in the new democracy generally uninformed and therefore unable to help pressure policy. The result is a foreign policy over the past year that has had little vision and few cohesive threads, and has left a score of unresolved issues. The 'new' South Africa's relations with Cuba and China, its policies on illegal immigration, and regional development plans are all issues that require visionary, decisive leadership but for which none has yet been provided. Wha…
author: Weld, David
language: eng
date published: 1995
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:04Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Political Studies

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14274