Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home Africana Periodical Literature Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:South African-Swaziland relations: a constructivist reading
Author:Domson-Lindsay, Albert
Year:2014
Periodical:South African Journal of International Affairs (ISSN 1938-0275)
Volume:21
Issue:3
Pages:391-411
Language:English
Geographic terms:South Africa
Swaziland - Eswatini
Subject:international relations
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2014.973440
Abstract:There are several accounts of the past relations between Swaziland and South Africa. Some are set in the realist school of international relations scholarship. These studies portray Swaziland's policy behaviour as 'submissive' because of 'immutable structural forces'. The neo-Marxian analyses locate the relations exclusively in class/ideological setting. Other accounts depict the 'kaleidoscopic' nature of the relations. The post-apartheid understanding of this relationship is largely gleaned from regional studies - the dominant view of which is that South Africa is reluctant to exercise hegemony in its relations with regional states. This article critiques the one-directional thrust of the realist and Marxian accounts. While endorsing multidirectional and multidimensional accounts of policy behaviour, the article shows that they lack an over-arching theoretical framework. A similar charge is directed at the post-apartheid literature. The position of this article is that constructivism offers analytical tools needed to understand the relations between the two states and how South Africa can reorder them. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
Views
Cover