‘Point Man’ on Zimbabwe: South Africa's Role in the Crisis

Abstract

The continuing crisis over Zimbabwe raises a variety of issues of considerable interest to both the theorist and the practitioner of foreign policy: the merits or otherwise of contemporary attempts at state classification; the utility and morality of intervention in a state's internal affairs by economic or military means; the notion of hegemony; the assumptions underpinning African diplomacy; the incentives and constraints attendant on South Africa's foreign policy. In attempting to explain South Africa's role in the Zimbabwean crisis this paper will—where appropriate—make reference to these theoretical concerns on the assumption that the interaction between South Africa and Zimbabwe provides some revealing insights.

Key Words:

• Power
• state
• security
• intervention

Acknowledgements

Some of the arguments addressed in this paper were discussed in a brief commentary, ‘Zimbabwe: future imperfect?’, Journal of Conflict, Security & Development, 5(3), pp. 363 – 370, 2005.