Thesis (M.M. (Public and Development Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits School of Governance, 2017 / This thesis was greatly motivated by the desire to understand and explain the foreign policy decision making process of the South African government on climate change. The study deploys Allison and Zelikow’s triple model from their famous analysis of the Cuban Missile Crisis as lenses in unmasking the complexities associated with processes of foreign policy decision making, on climate decisions in South Africa. In spite of the multi-sectoral interventions of government, business, NGO’s, civil society and academics in mitigating the impact of climate change, the decision making process excluded participation of other stakeholders at the political level. This was evident in 2009 at Copenhagen when the president announced that South Africa had committed itself to reduce carbon emissions by 34% in 2020 and 42% in 2025. A possible explanation why the multi-stakeholders participation was excluded in setting these numerical targets in the climate change decision making process, lies with the failure of the incumbent government to uphold the democratic principles of inclusive participation. Drawing from the work of Allison and Zelikow (1999), that state that it is not adequate to explain government’s events on decision making through the Rational Actor Model only, it is more useful to also consider the organisational processes and government politics from which the decision emerged. In this regard, interviews and documentary analysis were deployed within a qualitative case study design to gain an indepth understanding of South African foreign policy decision making processes on climate change targets. Overwhelmingly, the study established that there was a gross exclusion of multi-stakeholders participation in foreign policy decision making on setting the climate targets, ignoring the effects of the outcome of those decisions on socio-economic issues. This study therefore concluded that, although efforts are being put into place to ensure maximum participation by both government and other actors, there is still a need for South African government to allow participation of external actors. Premised in the forgoing conclusion, it is recommended that South African government foreign policy decisions on climate change can work better if entrenched on other multi-stakeholders’ decisions and following inclusive participation at the political level. / GR2018

Africa is at the cross roads as it redefines itself within a new framework of political and economic linkages. The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States illustrate both the dangers of reckless foreign policy choices as well as the need for cooperation with regard to transnational threats. From the exclusive policies of ‘total onslaught’ to the inclusive policies of the African Renaissance, South Africa has tried almost everything but remains unable to find an acceptable niche for herself in Southern Africa. Deep suspicions about South African intentions and commitment persist despite the reality of shared fears of further marginalisation, and aspirations of more propitious integration, within a rapidly globalising international environment. In understanding these dynamics, this study traces the evolution of South Africa’s contemporary relationship with the Southern African region and rationalizes this relationship within a broader theoretical framework based on development, discourse and hegemonic stability theories as well as the middle-power and pivot-state paradigms. In addition, the study assesses South Africa’s foreign policy options in light of both domestic constraints and the perceptions of other countries within the region. In essence, South Africa’s regional foreign policy dilemma is a product of the country’s inability to adjust timeously its strategic compass in the mercurial world of foreign policy where a country seeking to advance an ambitious foreign policy agenda will always be confronted with powers arrayed against it, forces that it cannot manage and battles that it cannot win. As this thesis argues, South Africa’s inability to convince other states that her vision is complimentary to their needs has inhibited her ability to engineer a process of transformation and development in the region. The challenge for the South African government is to shift the power dynamic against which projections of South African dominance trigger fierce rejection or reluctant cooperation by regional governments. This foreign policy drive has to be underpinned by a clearly defined developmental strategy that is able to compromise between high ideals and stark realities, between a preference for paternalistically reshaping regional relations and realising that given internal challenges and international expectations, South Africa needs the region perhaps even more than the region needs South Africa. In order to restore some balance to this trend, regional relations grounded in transformative development must be seen as a critical component of South Africa’s national interests. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

No description available.

Barely twenty years after the end of the Cold War, the international political system has experienced an unanticipated shift from a United States (US) led unipolar global order to a new order marked by its fresh wave of multiple competitors (Prys 2009:137). The global burden on the US had reciprocally inspired the appearance of a range of actors: regional (middle) powers such as Brazil, China, India and Russia; European Union (EU); South Africa and Nigeria. Consequently, an increasing level of expectation has been imposed on regional powers to provide the right leadership direction capable of promoting international stability and paving the way for development in these regions. In the light of the above, this thesis examines the implication of the hegemonic stability theory in understanding the power dynamics within Africa. In essence, the study specifically seeks to operationalize the concept of regional hegemony by drawing on insights from a comparative foreign policy study of African regional powers with emphasis on Nigeria and South Africa. Using largely qualitative and secondary data supplemented with primary data, the study examines the underlying assertions of a possible hegemonic influence of both countries and, thus, addresses the dearth of literature on regional power and leadership dynamics - particularly in Africa. Since the celebrated entry of South Africa into the African democratic arena, the resultant implication of this has been a change in the power, leadership and economic equations in Africa. From a theoretical projection of hegemonic stability theory, this study concludes that there is undeniable linkage between the foreign policies of Nigeria and South Africa and their hegemonic ambitions in the continent. However, by extrapolating the hegemonic stability theory at a regional level of analysis, the study finds very little empirical evidence to suggest the application of the theory at the regional level. While Nigeria and South Africa have been called upon repeatedly to play hegemonic roles within the continent, the study shows that both countries lack the conditions to effectively play such roles within a continent with major historical, internal and external constraints that puncture the possibility of a hegemonic influence. In short, hegemonic claim in Africa is mere (un)official rhetoric and lacks substance. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is a study of South African transitions. A transition, within the context of South African contemporary history, usually refers to the period in the early 1990s when South Africa underwent a negotiated transition from racial minority rule to a full democracy in 1994. This thesis takes a liberal understanding of South Africa’s transition timeline and is not confined just to South Africa’s political transition, but also examines transitions within transitions. This will be done through three studies beginning with a survey of the global political transitions that took place against the backdrop of South Africa’s domestic political transition in the early 1990s. Secondly, we will look at the role that national historical identity plays in diplomacy and international relations and, more specifically, at the cultivation of a new historic identity in South Africa’s international relations. Lastly, we will examine the policy transitions that came in the “new” South Africa through a case study of the nationalization debate. All three of these focuses will be studied through the lens of South Africa’s foreign relations with China and the United States which provides a unique vantage point for viewing the complexities. The goal of this thesis is to develop a broader understanding of transitions in South Africa and the role that the United States and China played in them. As this theme is interrogated, some of the continuities and discontinuities will be exposed between the “old” and “new” South Africa. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis bestudeer Suid-Afrikaanse transisies. 'n Transisie, binne die konteks van kontemporêre Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis, verwys gewoonlik na die tydperk van die vroeë 1990's toe Suid-Afrika 'n bemiddelde oorgang ondergaan het vanaf radikale minderheidsbewind na 'n volledige demokrasie in 1994. Hierdie tesis neem 'n liberale benadering tot die tydperk waarbinne hier periode beskou word en is nie beperk tot slegs Suid-Afrika se politieke transisie nie, maar ondersoek ook transisies binne-in transisies. Dit sal gedoen word deur drie ondersoeke, wat begin met 'n oorsig van die wêreldwye politieke transisies wat op daardie stadium plaasgevind het teen die agtergrond van Suid-Afrika se binnelandse politieke transisie van die 1990's. Tweedens sal ons kyk na die rol wat nasionale historiese identiteit speel in diplomatiese en internasionale verhoudinge en, meer spesifiek, die kultivering van 'n nuwe nasionale historiese identiteit in Suid-Afrika se internasionale verhoudinge. Laastens beskou ons die beleidstransisies wat ingekom het in die "nuwe" Suid-Afrika. Dit word gedoen deur 'n gevallestudie van Suid-Afrika se debat oor nasionalisering. Al drie hierdie fokusse sal beskou word deur die lens van Suid-Afrika se verhoudinge met Sjina en die Verenigde State. Hierdie verhoudinge verskaf 'n unieke oogpunt waar rondom die kompleksiteite van hierdie debat beskou kan word. Die doel van hierdie tesis is om 'n breër verstandhouding te skep waarin Suid-Afrika se transisies beskou kan word. Soos hierdie tema ondersoek word, word van die kontinuïteite en diskontinuïteite van die "ou" en "nuwe" Suid-Afrika ontbloot.

Political Sciences / M.A. (International Politics)

There is a dearth of position papers on international participation in the South African transition. Political parties and organisations in South Africa instead spend most of their time describing various forms of desirous IC intervention after the transition. This might explain why most articles and academic papers on 'the role of the international community' are suffixed - in the 'new South Africa' or 'post-apartheid South Africa' - few focus on the actual transition and then mostly from a systemic perspective, broadly outlining the constraints imposed by the 'new world order'. Perhaps the first serious attempt to address this gap in the debate over South Africa's future was D. Kempton and L. Mosia's 'The International Community in South Africa's Transition to non-racial Democracy' (1992). Before multiparty negotiations collapsed in June 1992, Kempton and Mosia examined the attitudes toward international intervention of most of the CODESA participants, as well as the major actors that had remained outside CODESA. This paper takes up the issue where Kempton and Mosia left off. It tries to explain transitional politics since the IC introduced an on-the-ground presence after the UN Security Council debates on South Africa in July 1992. It asks why, eight months after multiparty talks were suspended, the IC has been unable to revive multiparty negotiations, has apparently had little or no impact on the violence, and despite events like Boipatong and Bisho, still plays a minor peacekeeping role, confined to observer status. The research describes internal and external components of international intervention, examines the rationale behind the agreed forms of international participation, and assesses the viability of the internationally-supported conflict-resolution and transition-management structures that were formed to facilitate the transition. The evidence uncovered by the research leads the author to the conclusion that more of an international role is necessary, and sooner rather than later, but he concedes that this is not feasible, or likely, under the status quo.

This thesis critiques hegemonic theory – especially the impact of a hegemonic state on the ability of small states to develop an independent foreign policy. The research uses Lesotho as a case study of a subordinate state in relation to the Republic of South Africa (RSA) as a hegemonic state. It draws on the history of Lesotho’s quest for sovereignty and argues that this sovereignty is constantly eroded to the advantage of its hegemonic neighbour. This constrains Lesotho’s ability to develop an independent foreign policy.

M.A. (Political Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

To date, no in-depth analysis has been made of the diplomatic relations that existed between the Republic of South Africa (RSA) and the Republic of China on Taiwan (ROC) from 1976 to 1997. Current scholarly works on relations between the two countries tend to oversimplify the forces that drew the two countries into close association during the said period, and presume that ROC-RSA bilateral relations were merely the result on the mutual pariah status of both states. In addition, several common misconceptions regarding the nature of ROC-RSA relations are recurrent in the existing research. This thesis, therefore, examines the development of ROA-RSA relations and interactions from the eve of the ROC government’s relocation to Taiwan in 1948 to the severance of ROC-RSA diplomatic relations in 1998 against the background of the overall historical circumstances of both countries. This study argues that the factors in the formation of ROC-RSA ties are manifold and a result of the convergence of anti-communist ideologies and common interests. Pariah status and international ostracism are only part of the array of complex factors. Efforts are made to investigate the historical conditions, foreign policy objectives and national interests that helped cement diplomatic relations, as well as the extent of co-operation in the complete spectrum of ROC-RSA relations, including economic and cultural relations, and military and nuclear collaborations. These various aspects are explored in order to give a fuller picture of ROC-RSA tenses and limitations of these relations are analysed. Furthermore, the causes that led to South Africa’s switch of diplomatic recognition to the People’s Republic of China(PRC) and the prospects of future relations between the ROC and the RSA are also studied. / Thesis (DPhil (History))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Historical and Heritage Studies / Unrestricted