South Africa's role in southern Africa: A postapartheid foreign policy

This dissertation, examines the postapartheid role of South Africa in southern Africa. The postapartheid era began on April 10, 1994, with Nelson Mandela's inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa. Given the domineering and antagonistic regional role of the former regime, the new president immediately moved to realign southern African relations.;South Africa's reentry into southern Africa is marked by two distinct, yet related, policy approaches. First, President Mandela is restructuring South Africa's regional role through a broad diplomatic engagement strategy that emphasizes the democratization of the region's state systems. Building on the president's international reputation, this strategy seeks to foster regional stability and cooperation through peaceful negotiation and accommodation of interests.;The second approach, is characterized by South Africa's high profile positioning of the Southern African Development Conference (SADC) as the premier vehicle for multilateral negotiation on regional development. Though South Africa views the SADC as the conduit to approach formal integration in the future, the policy present emphasis is on sectoral cooperation. Priority is given to sectoral cooperation in the areas of trade, transport, natural resources, health, and migration.;South Africa's two prong regional approach is uniquely redefining regional relations. However, a stagnant economy constrains the extent to which the government can be overly ambitious about its role in regional development. A realistic assessment of the domestic priorities attached to the allocation of state resources necessarily cautions South Africa's evolving regional policy.;South Africa's weak economy and the harsh challenges imposed by a reordered global economy signal that significant regional development will not be easy or timely. In this unforgiving environment, the region remains unavoidably tied to South Africa's economic fortunes in much the same way as it did during the apartheid era. However, it is significant that South Africa is showing the political will to moderate and even change this reality.;Despite South Africa's considerable domestic challenges, it has not become inwardly preoccupied. Instead, South Africa links its developmental priorities to those of the region. This aspect, is what places South Africa's evolving regional role firmly within a new era of constructive and, peaceful cooperation.