PULA Journal of African Studies, vo.1 11 nO.2 (1997) Vulnerability and viability of small states in Southern Africa in a post-apartheid era: is South Africa still "Big Brother?"

coupled with the global changes that have swept the world political economy with the collapse of the socialist bloc countries compel us to re-think and redefine regional relations in Southern Africa. The old inter-state relations were marked by heavy influences of both Cold War and Apartheid and were consequently confrontational. The gun-boat diplomacy and distabilsation of the time effectively turned regional relations into a zero-sum game. The emerging new regionalism seems to be characterised by a positive-sum economic cooperation and a mutually beneficial diplomatic engagement among states of the region. This notwithstanding, hierarchical power relations still drive the process of inter-state cooperation and this attests to South Africa's continued hegemony over its neighbours: a phenomenon which is more glaring in South Africa's multi-faceted relations with Lesotho and Swaziland