From rejection to acceptance: the conditions of regional contestation and followership to post-apartheid South Africa

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	From rejection to acceptance: the conditions of regional contestation and followership to post-apartheid South Africa
Author:	Scholvin, Sören
Year:	2013
Periodical:	African security (ISSN 1939-2206)
Volume:	6
Issue:	2
Pages:	133-152
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	South Africa Southern Africa
Subjects:	international relations foreign policy
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392206.2013.788409
Abstract:	The relations of post-apartheid South Africa with its neighbouring States in Southern Africa have been marked by contestation and followership to the regional hegemon, shifting from the former to the latter at the beginning of this millennium. This article analyses the most important cases of regional security policy in the region from the 1990s and 2000s: South Africa's intervention in Lesotho, the intervention in the DRC by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, South Africa's intervention in Burundi, and South Africa as a mediator in Zimbabwe. It shows that four conditions explain whether the other regional States contest or follow South Africa: a demand for South African leadership, South Africa's general vision for distribution of power and guiding principles in international relations, the compatibility of policy-specific interests, and the interpretation of the past behaviour of the hegemon. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract].