SA Yearbook of International Affairs 2003/4
SAIIA: 2004
ISBN: 1-919969-27-6
Pages: 498
Price: R175
Published by SAIIA with the assistance of the Anglo American Chairman's Fund. Distribution to SADC parliaments courtesy of the Royal Danish Government.
'Policy and decion-makers both in government and civil society will find [the Yearbook] useful in many ways.'
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Foreign Affairs, South Africa
Since 1996 when the Yearbook was first published as a monitor and review of foreign policy and international developments of relevance both to the country and the continent, it has broadened its scope and focus to reflect South Africa's burgeoning international engagements.
To mark ten years of democratic foreign policy, the 2003/04 Yearbook begins with two contributions documenting some of the milestones in South Africa’s foreign relations over the last decade, and an examination of the role played in foreign policy formulation and implementation by South African non-governmental organisations, especially in second-track diplomacy.
The second section provides a region-by-region overview of some of the key political and socio-economic developments on the continent in the period under review, with an extensive analysis of developments in North Africa in the context of radical Islam.
South Africa’s economic diplomacy and some of its efforts at conflict resolution come under the spotlight in section three, ‘Issues in SA foreign policy’. One article analyses whether the continent is heading towards a ‘pax South Africana’, while another compares the country’s responses to the crises in Swaziland and Zimbabwe. In addition, there are articles on trade strategies among key countries of the South, the impact of the trade agreement with the EU, prospects for a SACU agreement with the US, and the ‘footprint’ of South African companies on the rest of the continent.
The fourth section provides a varied mix of contributions on some of the most topical issues on Africa, including the African Peer Review Mechanism, which in 2004 began the preliminary procedures in countries that have acceded to it. Another article analyses the African Union’s evolving security architecture and the linkages with the Southern African Development Community and other subregional organisations. There are also contributions on the elections in Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda, and the challenges for parliamentary democracy in Southern Africa. Africa has not escaped the scourge of religious extremism and the Yearbook provides a brief overview of terrorism in Africa and efforts by states to counter it. There is also a discussion on the phenomenon of Libya’s transformation from rogue state to a ‘seemingly’ more responsible member of the international community. However, the authors caution that elements within the Libyan state may well be laying the foundations for the next Islamic fundamentalist threat.
Over the last decade, as African states have thrown off many of their despotic leaders, genuine attempts have been made to examine and come to terms with their violent, undemocratic past. Two articles focus on the numerous such initiatives, from the UN tribunal on the Rwandan genocide to the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.
The last section of essays provides a brief eclectic mix of more general world issues. It examines the prospects for the Doha Development Round, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, Australia’s foreign policy, North Korean nuclear proliferation and the role that information technology can play in foreign policy projection by non-state actors.
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