ISS Seminar, Pretoria: South Africa: The Link Between Domestic Policy and Foreign Policy

Date: 2011-12-08

Venue: , Event Venue, ISS Conference Room, Block C, Brooklyn Court, 361 Veale Street, New Muckleneuk

RSVP:
Sarah Malefo
Tel: 012 346 9500
Fax: 012 460 0997

 

After South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, it appeared that the values that shaped its liberation struggle and transitional period would also be translated into its post-apartheid foreign policy. However, since the Mandela-era a direct link between foreign policy and domestic policy has become less obvious, whilst a tension between the promotion of the values of democracy and human rights and the pursuit of national interests has become increasingly apparent - most evidently demonstrated by a varying degree of willingness and ability to push for democratic reforms in countries like Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Ivory Coast and Libya. Paradoxically, at the same time that South Africa seeks a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council as well as maintain its leadership role on the continent, it runs the risk of losing both its internatonal credibility and ‘African legitimacy’. This seminar sets out to explore the link between the current direction of South Africa’s foreign policy and its domestic political realities – adressing both the state-of-play of South Africa’s own democracy and the internal ‘Realpolitik’ of important foreign policy actors in South Africa, such as the ANC’s Luthuli House and Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as the relationship and coordination between Union Buildings and DIRCO during the Zuma Presidency.

CHAIRPERSON: Dr Jakkie Cilliers, Executive Director, Institute for Security Studies

KEY SPEAKER: Prof Steven Friedman, Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg

RESPONDANT: Dr Gwinyayi Albert Dzinesa, Senior Researcher, African Conflict Prevention Programme (ACPP), Institute for Security Studies

Participants are free to use the information presented, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participants, may be revealed without his/her express permission.

ISS Rules:
Participants are free to use the information presented, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participants, may be revealed without his/her express permission.