Economic statecraft in South Africa's regional diplomacy

This paper considers the extent to which South Africa utilises positive economic statecraft to promote human rights in the region – that is, the degree to which it mobilises its economic engagement to affect a desirable political outcome in its foreign engagements in Southern Africa. The country's reaction to crises in Zimbabwe and Swaziland over the past 20 years is a strong indicator of the limits of South Africa's statecraft in this regard. These engagements highlight the inevitable clash between the country's principled preference for ‘non-interference’ in the affairs of sovereign states and its constitutional mandate to respect and promote human rights. Despite eschewing the role of ‘regional hegemon’, there is an expectation that South Africa will play an integral role in securing regional stability. Yet there is little evidence to suggest that the country chooses to approach resolving regional challenges with a co-ordinated political and economic approach. This paper argues that, to be more effective in spreading a progressive regional agenda that encourages democracy, governance and human rights, South Africa needs to incorporate a stronger element of positive economic statecraft in its foreign policy implementation.     

Assessing South Africa's ambivalent SOGI diplomacy in Africa

Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in Africa has received growing attention as some states have passed harsh laws against sexual minorities. South Africa stands out as one of the few states in Africa with constitutional guarantees and a strong legislative framework to protect sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) rights. However, Pretoria's SOGI stance in Africa is uncertain. While South Africa sometimes assertively supports SOGI rights abroad, at other points it ambivalently backs away from the issue. This paper examines the array of domestic and regional dynamics that inform South Africa's approach to SOGI issues. The article concludes by discussing recent scholarship on the negative socioeconomic impacts of marginalising sexual minorities. This research indicates that, if South Africa pursues a foreign policy that more clearly defends SOGI rights, it can both promote its values and further its interests throughout Africa.     

Situating the European Union within South Africa's foreign policy calculus

ABSTRACT

This article reviews the importance of the EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership in South Africa's foreign policy calculations after a decade in existence. While political differences have been open for all to see in cases such as Zimbabwe and South Africa's notice of withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, the enhanced political dialogue is important in ensuring that the partners have a greater appreciation of the complexities faced by foreign policy-makers on both sides. This study is thus interested in uncovering why political relations have lagged behind the economic and social aspects of the relationship. After assessing South Africa's foreign policy interests towards the EU, it then reviews where the political fault lines have been located since the adoption of the Joint Action Plan before identifying areas of cooperation in meeting South Africa’s interests as stated in the 2011 white paper on foreign policy.     

South Africa's political miracle: The international dimension

This article raises some important questions such as does Nepad have what it takes to create change and bring added value amid all the many other development initiatives? Is it sustainable? Does it have the credibility to fly?     

Pragmatic internationalism: public opinion on South Africa's role in the world

This report of a public opinion survey on South Africa’s foreign policy did not attempt to gauge South Africans’ knowledge about specific issues in international politics, but rather their underlying attitudes, specifically their foreign policy postures. After providing a brief overview of the scholarly debates about the role of public opinion in foreign policy analysis, we contextualise the nature and methodological approach of the survey. Thereafter we organise the article according to three key themes that illuminate ‘ordinary’ South Africans’ foreign policy postures and how South Africans view their country’s international identity. These themes include, first, debates about what the purpose of our foreign policy should be; second, the country’s international role; and third, who South Africans consider to be our allies and role models. Finally, we distil possible patterns emerging from the survey into a posture that we relate to two concepts: ‘pragmatic internationalism’, and a ‘middle power role’.     

South Africa's financial and economic prospects for the next five years

South African dominance of trade in Africa as well as its position as a regional hegemon was entrenched by the Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) with the European Union in 1999. South Africa's full-blown integration into the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) formation since 2011 has brought new dynamics, however, as South Africa now has a marked BRICS orientation. Although the European Union (EU) as a bloc is still South Africa's largest trading partner, China has become South Africa's largest single-country trading partner. The question arises as to whether this new found loyalty makes sense in terms of South Africa's regional position and its trade prospects. Against the background of more intra-industry trade with the EU and the new and growing inter-industry trade with the other BRICS economies, South Africa's trade share of African trade has been in relative decline. This study uses an international political economy framework to analyse South African trade hegemony based on the TDCA and the possible effects of a shift towards BRICS. The conclusion is that, although the shift towards BRICS can politically be justified, economically it should not be at the expense of the benefits of the more advantageous relationship with the EU.     

Understanding South Africa's foreign policy: the perplexing case of Zimbabwe

Many who have admired the African National Congress are confused and dismayed by post-apartheid South Africa's foreign policy on human rights and good governance, exemplified by its most important policy test to date, viz. Zimbabwe. It is argued below that understanding this policy in terms of the widely-used explanation that it represents ‘a shift from idealism to realism’ is unsatisfactory. This state-centric framework, focused on ‘national’ interests and ideals cannot accommodate the wide range of interests, ideals, and other factors that shape the policy. Instead, this investigation assumes that all foreign policies involve a close interaction between ‘realism’ (interest-driven analysis) and ‘idealism’ (beliefs/values-driven analysis). In addition to exploring this interaction, this paper also touches briefly and tentatively on the following questions: how well has South Africa's foreign policy been calculated and implemented, and what have been its effects and consequences for South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the ‘progressive’ international norms to which both South Africa and many of its critics subscribe. A subsidiary aim is to clarify some misunderstandings between South Africa and the West that frequently lead to their ‘talking past each other’ on this, and other, issues of human rights and good governance.     

Crocker's choice: Constructive engagement and South Africa's people

Chester Crocker. High Noon in Southern Africa: Making peace in a rough neighbourhood. New York: Norton, 1992, pp. 533.     

The weak domestic base of South Africa's good global citizenship

The self-appointed role of good international citizen that South Africa has played since 1994 is the external corollary of its supposed good governance at home. Weaknesses in domestic governance have, however, been evident since early in the life of democratic South Africa. These problems have become more acute, and internal dissatisfaction with and external awareness of ‘poor service delivery’ in South Africa have grown since 2009 when Jacob Zuma became president. The article illustrates that South Africa fails to meet core criteria of good governance and considers the implications of weak governance for the Republic's good international citizenship.     

South Africa's bilateral relationships in the evolving foreign policy of an emerging middle power

This article introduces the special issue on ‘South African Foreign Policy: identity, directions, and intentions’. Here we seek to summarize key insights from the contributions to this special issue to deepen understanding of South Africa’s evolving post-apartheid foreign policy through an exploration of the nature and trajectory of key bilateral relationships from both the global ‘South’ (Brazil, China, Iran, the AU) and ‘North’ (Japan and the UK). This window on the country’s international relations enriches understanding of the normative and structural factors that influence not only South African foreign policy, but those of what Edouard Jordaan calls emerging middle powers as they seek to position themselves as influential actors in international affairs. We sketch the contours of these key South African relationships in four areas where the tendencies and tensions of emerging middle power foreign policies are apparent: regionalism, multilateralism, reform of global governance, and approach to moral leadership.     

Explaining South Africa's Bill of Rights: an interpretive approach

Ideational approaches to politics are frequently criticised for indeterminacy. In comparative constitutional politics, critics have alleged that the ‘human rights revolution’ cannot explain why bills of rights were adopted in different places and different times. Ideational scholars have not responded convincingly. Focusing on the famous South African case study, and drawing on theories of belief formation and legitimation in interpretive political science, this paper argues that new beliefs can be explained by historically specifiable dilemmas. It uses process-tracing to show how scholars have mistakenly assumed that key players in the post-apartheid transition only adopted beliefs in rights in order to rationalise interests.     

A battle of principles: South Africa's relations with Iran

This paper provides a detailed case study and theoretical explanation for one of the least appreciated bilateral relationships of democratic South Africa. It analyses South Africa's post-apartheid relations with Iran as a case study to illustrate and discuss the contradictory principles that appear to guide South Africa's foreign policy. South Africa's tempered reaction to Iran's nuclear programme is in contradiction with its non-proliferation stance, but can be understood by looking into the ideology of the ruling African National Congress.     

Ubuntu,public policy ethics and tensions in South Africa's foreign policy

This article examines the practicability of Ubuntu in public policy, in particular the domain that concerns South Africa's external relations. The authors contend that advancing Ubuntu in a world that is increasingly fractured along identity lines, marked by anxiety and characterised by realism and interplays of power is an ideal worth pursuing. This article shows that there is dissonance in South Africa in the rhetoric that champions Ubuntu and the actual policy practice in crucial dimensions. The authors not only set out to mark the contours of the disjuncture between the rhetoric of Ubuntu and its application in both public policy and foreign policy, but also make a case for advancing Ubuntu as an integral part of public policy and a standard against which to measure success.