South Africa foreign policy and the national interest: which interest?

Masters, L and Landsberg, C, 2024. South Africa foreign policy and the national interest: which interest? Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 67 (2): e017. ISSN 0034-7329

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Abstract

In 2022 the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) released the National Interest Framework, formally setting out what South Africa’s national interest is. According to DIRCO this aimed at providing an understanding of, and predictability in South Africa’s international relations. As the latest document in guiding foreign policy the framework reflects a continuation in the rhetoric of foreign policy principles; yet for all its effort in identifying the country’s foreign policy priorities, questions remain concerning the interests it reflects. Indeed, although there has been centralisation of decision-making, this has not translated into presenting a singular foreign policy or national interest position. Rather, South Africa’s national interest reflects a negotiated outcome of different positions among the political elites in government and the ruling party (African National Congress). Using Wight’s national interest taxonomy, the article highlights the presence of multiple positions evident in South Africa’s national interest framework before considering what the implications are for the implementation of foreign policy. This draws on a critical review of foreign policy documents, supported by semi-structured interviews with practitioners, academics, think tanks, and NGOs. The article argues that the national interest framework is not a reflection of one, but an amalgamation of what Wight identifies as realist, revolutionist, and rationalist doctrines. This has left the framework a broad document without specific aims in achieving the national interest. It also goes some way towards accounting for the limited application to date of the national interest framework in facilitating an understanding of South Africa’s international relations.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional
Creators:	Masters, L. and Landsberg, C.
Publisher:	Universidade de Brasília, Centro de Estudos Globais
Date:	August 2024
Volume:	67
Number:	2
ISSN:	0034-7329
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1590/0034-7329202400217 DOI 2206756 Other
Rights:	This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	09 Sep 2024 08:23
Last Modified:	07 Oct 2024 14:32
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52181

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