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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Impact of Sanctions on South Africa
Author:Bell, Trevor
Year:1993
Periodical:Journal of Contemporary African Studies
Volume:12
Issue:1
Pages:1-28
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:apartheid
economic sanctions
Economics and Trade
international relations
Politics and Government
Abstract:This paper examines the question of whether sanctions (actual, or the threat of sanctions) contributed significantly to the 'ultimate political goal' of forcing the South African government to enter into negotiations with the black majority. This question is considered under various headings: sanctions and the debt crisis, disinvestment, boycotts of South Africa's exports, the oil embargo, and preemptive import substitution. The question of the likely impact of intensified sanctions, such as were proposed in the late 1980s, also raises some issues crucial both to an understanding of the past performance of the South African economy, and to the formulation of a development strategy for the future. The author concludes that, in the context of powerful domestic economic and political trends, unrelated to sanctions, and a major shift in the structure of the international system, it appears that the sanctions campaign might well have contributed to the commencement of negotiations. Insofar as sanctions 'worked', however, it appears that they did so by 'sending a message', as an instrument of diplomatic leverage, by 'governments which merely threatened to apply them, or set conditions for not applying them', rather than by constricting the economy. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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