This special issue of the South African Journal of International Affairs is dedicated to Professor Gerrit Olivier for his contribution to the discipline of International Relations over more than five decades. As he celebrated his 80th birthday in 2015, a group of his former students and other colleagues, prompted by Koos (Jay) van Wyk of Pittsburg State University, Kansas (USA), pay tribute to Olivier with seven articles reflecting the wide reach of his academic interests and contributions.
Beginning his academic career in the 1960s, Gerrit Olivier was soon attracted to the study of world politics and played a key role in the introduction of international politics as an autonomous discipline at the University of Pretoria. Within this field he established himself as an expert in foreign policy analysis. His book, Die Buitelandse Beleid van Suid-Afrika (The Foreign Policy of South Africa), released in 1977, was the first theoretically grounded analysis of foreign policy published in Afrikaans.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Olivier also published in the fields of political development and change. Although South Africa was his principal case study, he was keenly aware that external factors helped to shape the country's fortunes and that domestic developments in turn had an impact on South Africa's international standing. In later years Olivier developed a strong interest and indeed expertise in regional integration, focusing on the applicability of the European Union model to Africa.
Throughout his career, Gerrit Olivier generously served the South African academic community. In the various fields of inquiry noted above, Olivier over many years mentored a large number of postgraduate students. He was a founding member of the Political Science Association of South Africa and served as the first editor of Politikon (1973–1983), the organisation's official journal.
In 1986 Olivier exchanged academic life for that of a foreign policy practitioner. He served as chief director of planning in the Department of Foreign Affairs until his appointment as head of the new South African Interest Section in Moscow. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he became South Africa's first ambassador to the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Following his retirement from the diplomatic service in the mid-1990s, Professor Olivier returned to academia. He established the Centre of European Studies at what was then the Rand Afrikaans University (now the University of Johannesburg), making him a pioneer in the academic study of European affairs in South Africa. He was subsequently appointed as an extraordinary professor in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria, a position he still holds. In 2013 Olivier was one of the founding members of the South Africa–Russia Dialogue Forum, a civil society initiative to promote knowledge and understanding between the two peoples.
Olivier continues to perform the role of public intellectual and opinion leader. Besides regular commentaries on radio and television, he has written more than 150 articles in domestic and foreign newspapers and magazines. These opinion pieces cover a wide range of contemporary topics related to South African and world politics.
In recognition of Gerrit Olivier's pioneering work in the theory and practice of foreign policy and his ongoing contributions to the academic and public discourses on issues in world politics, we are pleased to present a selection of articles touching on themes explored by Olivier in his own writings. They are joined together under the caption South Africa's world: perspectives on diplomacy, international political economy and law.
In the first article Deon Geldenhuys evaluates South Africa's ‘good governance’ performance as a domestic prerequisite for its ‘good global citizenship’. The country's rankings on various governance indices are compared globally and with other African states. The government's ability, often inability, to solve societal problems and to advance the quality of life is judged by the hard facts of statistics. Geldenhuys finds that South Africa, despite some successes, more often than not fails to measure up to modern standards of good governance. These governance deficits, he argues, undermine South Africa's claims to be a virtuous global citizen.
In her contribution Maxi Schoeman investigates whether South Africa's self-reference as an emerging power is merely a label or a true reflection of its global status. Although South Africa is associated with emerging global actors such as BRICS and the G20, the country has played a limited role in promoting idealistic objectives such as greater global equality. Schoeman posits that South Africa's economic and political weaknesses constrain its ability to exert regional and global influence.
Irina Filatova offers a fascinating case study of how the Soviet Union and apartheid South Africa, long sworn adversaries, engaged in rapprochement. Gerrit Olivier's role in this process offers insights into behind-the-scenes diplomatic negotiations. Russia, the post-Soviet regime, established diplomatic relations with South Africa in 1991 despite the fact that the latter's regime change negotiations were still at an early stage and the ANC opposed such diplomatic ties. Once the ANC came to power, it took almost a decade to restore its former close relationship with Moscow.
Fioramonte and Kotsopoulos trace the evolution of EU–South African relations and their influence in Africa. The relationship oscillates since South Africa and the EU may not share the same broad normative aspirations vis-à-vis the African continent. South Africa assumed a positive role in setting up framework agreements between the EU and Africa, for example the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES), but it also played a contrarian role in economic partnership agreement negotiations. Regarding broader international issues, South Africa has often displayed indecisiveness or opposition to positions taken by the EU; South Africa's vacillation regarding the UN resolution on LGBT rights is a case in point.
An investigation into whether South Africa can imitate the Asian model of the developmental state is offered by Landsberg and Georghiou. They discuss the challenges of achieving the primary goals of the developmental state, notably sustainable economic growth and the development of human capital. Can South Africa develop a meritocratic bureaucracy and embedded autonomy to achieve developmental goals? The authors also consider whether South Africa has formulated a foreign policy commensurate with such developmental goals and whether it has a diplomatic service in place to help it achieve these goals. South Africa's claims to be a developmental state remain idealistic given the gap between policy intent and actual governmental performance.
Costa Georghiou then makes a case for South Africa's development of cultural diplomacy as an important technique of foreign policy. The current globalised world requires cultural intelligence or competence since political, economic, security and social issues are often influenced by cultural differences. The author advocates more specialised diplomatic training in cultural matters and maintains that the country's unique blend of Western and African cultures may be utilised to promote a distinctive South African cosmopolitanism in foreign affairs. At the same time Georghiou warns that South Africa has lost its moral authority and status as an international actor.
The final article is by Michèle Olivier. In her analysis of the role of African Union (AU) law in integrating Africa, Olivier finds that the AU leans towards a functional approach in an effort to transfer sovereign powers to African institutions such as the Pan-African Parliament, the Peace and Security Council and the African Court. The AU reflects a pan-African philosophy to replace international treaty norms, which the body regards as singling out Africa as a target, with an African law more suitable for dealing with issues such as human rights, democratic governance and conflict. Olivier argues that a regional law for Africa is still a work-in-progress owing to the lack of political will to act against the deviant behaviour of individual African countries.
With these offerings we salute Gerrit Olivier – mentor, colleague and friend. His work remains an inspiration and challenge to the community of scholars studying South Africa's international relations.