Globalization and Emerging Trends in African States' Foreign Policy-Making Process by Rok Ajulu Korwa Gombe Adar

Author:Rok Ajulu, Korwa Gombe Adar [Rok Ajulu, Korwa Gombe Adar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Google: emjQtwEACAAJ
Publisher: Ashgate
Published: 2002-01-15T04:40:57+00:00

For the ANC, the struggle for an apartheid-free South Africa was in many ways a struggle for fundamental human rights. It is no coincidence, therefore, that human rights are canonised as a cornerstone in its foreign policy. Furthermore, the emphasis on the promotion of democracy and adherence to international law embodies the values and norms enshrined in South Africa's new constitution. It is also worth noting that South Africa's neighbours suffered immeasurable harm in aiding and supporting the struggle for liberation. A range of African countries also provided the ANC with material support and formal diplomatic recognition while in exile. Much of the continent thus enjoyed a special relationship with the ANC and vice versa and Africa's elevation to a foreign policy priority is thus not surprising. There was a certain symmetry between the ethical and normative constructs of the ANC's domestic policies and the idealist foundations of its foreign policy in this period. The domestic public policy emphasis on democracy, justice and human rights was refracted in the above foreign policy principles. The government's initial economic framework, called the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) for example, also referred to the importance of rebuilding the South African economy in partnership with its regional neighbours and the necessity for integrating trade and foreign policy as part of a broader strategic approach for strengthening South-South cooperation.

The leitmotif governing South Africa's foreign policy has been labelled 'universality,' essentially the opening of foreign and local doors in the same reconciliatory spirit that has characterised its own domestic transformation. The noble intentions and the affirmation of certain values in its foreign policy notwithstanding, their realisation and implementation in practice has proven to be an ongoing dilemma and a vexing problem. In the view of one analyst, South Africa's . . foreign relations could be said to be lacking the necessary broad orientation and strategic purpose" (Mills 1997, 19). In many respects the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in the Mandela era was a prisoner of the past. The previous regime used and abused it to advance its apartheid policies. By the late 80s, the white, Afrikaner, male-dominated department became closely involved in the activities of the State Security Council, resulting in the department being relegated to an implementing instrument — whether in sanctions-busting operations, or ominously, in the security forces' regional destabilisation policies. By the time negotiations started on a new dispensation, between 1990 and 1994, the department was caught up in a complex process of restructuring. The challenge was twofold: absorbing the African National Congress's international affairs personnel, and integrating most of the 'foreign affairs' personnel of the previous four homelands (Evans 1995). Following the 1994 elections, the department then had to rationalise its size and structure in accordance with guidelines from the Public Service Commission.

There was also the political problem of how to deal with tensions between 'old-order' officials and the new cadres from the liberation movements. After 1994, white males continued to dominate top management. As one of the newcomers remarked in an interview, the ANC government took over the DFA and other departments as if nothing had changed.

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