Foreign Policy Ambiguity on the Part of an Emergent Middle Power: South African Foreign Policy through other Lenses

Abstract

This paper attempts to address the ambiguity so frequently highlighted in South Africa's post-apartheid foreign policy. Three central arguments are put forward. Firstly, it is argued that traditional accounts of South Africa's foreign policy, utilizing rationalist or ‘mainstream’ theories of International Relations, are insufficient in themselves to explain the complexities inherent in the country's foreign policy. In this regard, constructivist IR theory offers several key insights into studies of South Africa's foreign policy. Secondly, although it is argued that constructivism, particularly its focus on identity, is crucial to understanding South African foreign policy, it alone cannot sufficiently explain its reception or results on the world stage. Finally, it is argued that in order to fully appreciate both the nature and effects of South Africa's foreign policy, a mixed focus, incorporating insights from both constructivist and materialist-based theories of IR, is necessary.

Notes

Solidarism is one reading of international society which sees real or potential acts of solidarity amongst states at play in order to sustain an effective body of international law, see Linklater & Suganami (2006, p. 65).

Pluralism recognizes the use of foreign policy restraint in applying national policy, the respect for reciprocity, sensitivity towards the insecurities which arise from the existence of the security dilemma, the commitment to a fair balance between securing ones own security and allowing room for a degree of insecurity in order to make other states feel less insecure See Linklater & Suganami (2006, pp. 237–238).

See, for instance, Bischoff (2003); Habib and Selinyane (2004, 2006); Spence (2004); Nel (2006); Pfister (2006); Taylor (2006).

Constructivism can be subdivided into modernist constructivism, modernist linguistic, radical constructivism, and critical constructivism (Adler, 2003, pp. 97–98).

Intersubjectivity refers to ‘the beliefs held by individual agents about each other’ (Wendt, 1999, pp. 160–161).

Identity is ‘the understanding of the self in relationship to an “other”’ (Barnett, 2005, p. 267). Identities ‘are social and thus are always formed in relationship to others’ (Barnett, 2005, p. 267).

All post-positivists commonly refuse to recognize ‘a privileged epistemic status for science in explaining the world’ and believe that the methods of natural science are inappropriate in the social sciences (Wendt, 1999, p. 39).

German for ‘theory war’ (own translation).

As a developmental state, South Africa seeks to ‘create a more diversified export-oriented sector that is internationally competitive’, which is ‘aimed at realising socio-economic objectives such as job creation and higher growth rates and incomes (poverty alleviation)’ (Muller, 2002, p. 7).

Rhetorical Practice can be defined most succinctly as a strategy based on the use of ‘speech acts’ in a tactical sense, in order to realise an overarching and predetermined strategic objective. A ‘speech act’, in this sense, is ‘the act of speaking in a form that gets someone else to act ’ (Onuf, 1998, p. 66)—often in a particular fashion.

Materialism claims that perceptual, ideational, and cultural factors are ultimately dependant on a material base (Checkel, 1998, p. 329).

This encompasses the underlying economic capability that provides a state with both its current ability to manifest power and its capacity for long-term economic growth (Lahneman, 2003, p. 5).

This encompasses what a state is actually capable of doing over the short term to influence events over the world stage and includes military might, etc. (Lahneman, 2003, p. 5).

This encompasses what the state's leadership indicates the aim, scope and focus of a state's foreign policy to be (Lahneman, 2003, p. 6).

This refers to how other states expect a given state to behave, and includes such things as the level of leadership accorded a state, prestige, etc. (Lahneman, 2003, p. 7).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Olivier Serrão

Department of Political and International Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. This article in part derives from an MA thesis by O. Serrão, ‘The National Interest of National Identity: South Africa and the Foreign Policy of Identity Construction and Rhetorical Practice’ (Rhodes University, 2009).

Paul-Henri Bischoff

Department of Political and International Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. Email: [email protected]