Post Apartheid South Africa at the United Nations: Patterns and implications

[摘要] South Africa has played an essential role as one of the founding members of both theLeague of Nations and the United Nations (UN), the latter of which came intoexistence in 1945. However, when the South African government introduced andpursued its policy of Apartheid, the country became a pariah within the internationalcommunity. In 1994, after twenty years of international isolation, a new democraticgovernment was sworn in and was immediately embraced by the internationalcommunity.In their quest to further strengthen South Africa's ongoing transformation from anisolated international pariah to an emerging leader of the developing world, theMandela and Mbeki administrations adopted foreign policy adaptation strategies.These strategies were designed to adapt South African's foreign policy to the newrealities of the post-apartheid era: restructuring the foreign policy establishment; selfpromotionas the leader of the 'African Renaissance'; adherence to the foreign policyprinciple of 'universality' and assuming a leadership role in internationalorganizations.The United Nations has became one of the most important forums through which theinternational community's rapprochement towards South Africa has manifested itselfand has continued to play an important role in post-Apartheid South Africa'sinternational relations. South Africa's global status has increased significantly throughits participation in numerous UN bodies, agencies and General Assembly sessions. Ithas thus been argued that South Africa's participation at the United Nations is drivenby its intention to reform the organisation as well as showcase itself as arepresentative of the developing world and especially Africa, in an attempt to increaseits global stature as a moral and African power. In addition to this it ostensibly seeksto profile itself as a multilateral leader.This thesis attempts to explore the nature of South Africa's involvement andparticipation within the United Nations in the Post-Apartheid era and what the majorconsequences have been. It assesses the content and consequences of South Africanforeign policy rhetoric and institutional participation at the United Nations since theend of apartheid. This is done, first, through an attempt to understand the role ofinternational organisations within the international arena and how they are utilised infurthering foreign policy objectives of states through cooperation (which constitutesthe theoretical backdrop to the thesis), and second, through a systematic review ofSouth African behaviour and policy objectives at the United Nations. Amongst others,one of the more important themes emerging from this analysis is that South Africa iscombining many of its more recent UN initiatives with its participation in othermultilateral partnerships.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University