Explaining Postapartheid South African Human Rights Foreign Policy: Unsettled Identity and Unclear Interests

摘要

The end of apartheid in 1994 brought with it many domestic and international expectations about the kind of state the new South Africa would be and the foreign policies it would pursue. Many expected South Africa to pursue a human-rights-based foreign policy, but instead it has pursued a much more paradoxical foreign policy, with significant gaps between its stated commitments to human rights principles and its actions in support of those principles. This article explains these gaps. Delving into the literature on norms-based and interest-based explanations of state behavior, we argue that both approaches help explain South Africa's foreign policy actions. However, it is the unsettled nature of its identities and interests after 1994, as its leaders (particularly Thabo Mbeki) sought to reconcile a commitment to democracy and human rights with equally strong (if not greater) commitments to Afrocentrism and anti-imperialism, that provides the most interesting avenues for exploration.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2011.546278