Bouts de Papier
Introductory Remarks
Prof Lisa Otto
Deputy Director: SARChI African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy
This in-house publication by the SARChI Chair: African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy aptly named Bouts de Papier seeks to avail user-friendly briefs on African diplomacy, foreign policy, national, international, and maritime security issues. This newsletter comes at an opportune moment as South Africa celebrates 30 years of democracy and hence a time to review its foreign relations since.
The attainment of democracy in South Africa in 1994 came against the backdrop of the fall of Soviet Union and hence the end of the Cold War giving way to a unipolar world. Of course, the anticipated peaceful coexistence in a post-Cold War and post-Apartheid era turned out to be a mirage. Indeed, South Africa made strides in transforming its regional and international relations as it re-joined the community of nations without the blight of the Apartheid tag. With its renewed embrace and goodwill from the international community, South Africa pursued a human-rights based foreign policy. As would be expected, there were successes and limitations to South African foreign policy.
A unipolar world dominated by the United States of America has not given rise to amicable inter-state relations characterised more by diplomacy than warfare. Security threats, political uncertainty and even armed violence continue to characterise international relations and with violent conflicts prevalent in many parts of the world including in Africa, with SADC being no exception. Even the democratisation wave that brought about political changes in many developing countries, unfortunately it did not yield the hoped-for entrenchment of democratic rule and the supposed economic development associated with it.
In addition, the post-Cold War era coincided with the massive spread of social media in the age of disinformation and fake news consequently creating information overload that impacts negatively on the ability of the public, academia, and policymakers in making sense of the fast-changing foreign relations and its security implications. It is expected that Bouts de Papier would facilitate the understanding of the otherwise complex issues relating to international relations and their impact on national and international security.
Diplomatic work within institutional frameworks like the UN, AU, SADC or ECOWAS should foreground the analysis but also the analysis of historical geopolitical and strategic factors influencing the actions or inactions of both state and non-state actors. With increasing trade wars and the use of sanctions, the briefs in this newsletter would of necessity explore the role of economic blocs like BRICS in the foreign relations conundrum. South Africa’s foreign policy options remain a topical subject for many reasons. Will South Africa maintain its seemingly soft power approach in a changing world that may likely threaten her interests? Africa in general has recently been tested on conflicts outside the continent where she is coerced to take sides. The on-going Palestinian and Israel conflict is one case in point while the Russian invasion of Ukraine is another. Africa cannot be neutral in the Chinese posture against Taiwan nor the USA against Venezuela. African statesmen and women should balance between their desired independence in foreign relations and external pressure. For example, South Africa took a stand on Israel war in Gaza.
In Africa, there is a resurgence of military coups and hence the shrinking democratic space. Economically the continent continues with extractive industries and less value addition hence the failure to create jobs locally. Within SADC the DRC remains politically unstable and while SADC forces withdraw from Mozambique, Rwandan forces come in as replacement. The situation remains unstable. These are some of the pertinent questions that we hope could better understood from the briefs presented in the Bouts de Papier. Issues of national security are a concern for all not just a coterie of practitioners in the military, security or political science hence the production of simplified and accessible briefs for general readership.