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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Regional power South Africa: co-operative hegemony constrained by historical legacy
Author:Flemes, DanielISNI
Year:2009
Periodical:Journal of Contemporary African Studies
Volume:27
Issue:2
Pages:135-157
Language:English
Geographic terms:South Africa
world
Subjects:international relations
foreign policy
leadership
power
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589000902867238
Abstract:Regional powers can be distinguished by four pivotal criteria: claim to leadership, power resources, employment of foreign policy instruments, and acceptance of leadership. Applying these criteria to the case of South Africa, the author demonstrates the crucial significance of institutional foreign policy instruments for the power over policy outcomes at the regional and global level. But although Pretoria is ready to pay the costs of cooperative hegemony (capacity building for regional institutions and peacekeeping for instance), the regional acceptance of South African leadership is constrained by the historical legacy of apartheid. Additionally Pretoria's foreign policy is based on ideational resources such as its reputation as an advocate of democracy and human rights and its paradigmatic behaviour as a 'good global citizen' with the according legitimacy. The Mbeki presidency was more successful in converting these resources into discursive instruments of interest-assertion in global, than in regional bargains. In effect the regional power's reformist south-oriented multilateralism is challenging some of the guiding principles of the current international system. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]
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