Pulpit morality or penny-pinching diplomacy? The discursive debate on Mandela's foreign policy

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Periodical article

Title:	Pulpit morality or penny-pinching diplomacy? The discursive debate on Mandela's foreign policy
Author:	Vickers, Brendan
Year:	2002
Periodical:	Politeia: Journal for Political Science and Public Administration
Volume:	21
Issue:	2
Pages:	80-100
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	foreign policy politicians
About person:	Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918-2013)
Abstract:	For most of the Mandela presidency, South Africa's foreign policy was characterized by controversy, criticism, confusion and even paralysis. A spirited debate emerged in both the government and the academic and policy communities as to the appropriate approach to and the doctrinal bases (if any) of South Africa's foreign policy. Two ideologically opposed camps, the idealist solidarists and the neorealist free-marketeers, emerged and converged in this debate and vied to shepherd South Africa's foreign policy discourse and praxis. The emergence of this debate moreover underscored the inherent difficulties of reconciling idealism and development within the existing framework of the globalizing neoliberal world order. This article examines the core ideas, rhetoric and intellectual capital of each camp. It also highlights a number of tensions and dilemmas in South Africa's new foreign policy as revealed by the debate. In doing so, important insights are drawn as to who in South Africa spoke truth to power in the formulation and conduct of Mandela's foreign policy. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]