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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Moscow and Pretoria: a possible alignment? |
Author: | Coker, C. |
Year: | 1988 |
Periodical: | The World Today: Chatham House Review |
Volume: | 44 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 6-9 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | South Africa Soviet Union |
Subject: | foreign policy |
Abstract: | Since the arrival of Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet policy in southern Africa has undergone a major reevaluation, if not yet a major change of direction. There is evidence of a new realism towards the so-called Front Line States, and a more chastened attitude towards political change in South Africa. The author outlines Soviet policy in Africa, and discusses the possibility of a major realignment of forces in the case of a Soviet-South African rapprochement. Closer accommodation with the Soviet Union, requiring no more than a strict observance of South African 'neutrality', might yield a higher return than South Africa's present policy of 'semi-alignment'. Yet both the Soviet Union and those South Africans in favour of the 'Soviet option' are still confined within the premises of their earlier political thinking and it seems unlikely that the Soviet card will ever be played. Ref. |