South Africa's foreign policy and evolving role conceptions: a crisis of international identity

South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994 saw a substantial shift in the perceived international role for South Africa, from a position in defence of the domestic policy of apartheid, to the outwards orientated approach of universalism. The challenge, as this section argues, is that in the South African context the national role conception, or the image of what role the country should play in international relations, has failed to ‘settle’ despite continuity of foreign policy on paper. As Mills (1997) argues, the search for a new ‘image’ has seen Pretoria ‘leaning all over the place’ on the international stage. The result has been perceptible challenges in reconciling foreign policy ambitions and ideals with implementation in practice; where confusion around what role to adopt has made it difficult to predict the country’s international actions.SARChI Chair in African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, University of Johannesbur