South African Foreign Policy

This book considers the identity, direction, and intentions embodied in post-apartheid South African Foreign Policy.　 It aims to deepen the understanding of this 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 also those of the ‘emerging middle powers’ as they seek to position themselves as influential actors in international affairs. By sketching the contours of key South African relationships, the contributors offer illuminating insights into the cross-pressures shaping South African foreign policy. In addition, they also add depth to the emerging middle power concept by exploring 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.

This book was previously published as a special issue of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics.

Table of Contents

1. South Africa’s bilateral relationships in the evolving foreign policy of an emerging middle power

David R. Black and David J. Hornsby

2. Norm dynamics and international organisations: South Africa in the African Union and International Criminal Court

J. Andrew Grant and Spencer Hamilton

3. South Africa and Japan: maintaining a difficult friendship

Scarlett Cornelissen

4. South African foreign policy and China: converging visions, competing interests, contested identities

Chris Alden and Yu-Shan Wu

5. Brazil and South Africa: the ‘odd couple’ of the South Atlantic?

Janis van der Westhuizen

6. A battle of principles: South Africa’s relations with Iran

Michal Onderco

7. Breaking with tradition? South Africa–UK relations

David J. Hornsby and David R. Black