Abstract
The preceding detailed discussion of the structural and functional features of South African foreign policy making is organised in a conventional analytical-descriptive fashion. In this final chapter the explanatory qualities of a number of existing theoretical models or perspectives will be examined against the background of the empirical findings presented. Only a few theoretical insights of direct relevance to the South African case have been selected from the literature; an overview of the wealth of scholarly studies will not be attempted. As will be seen, each model or perspective explains some part of the overall picture, and in this sense they are supplementary. The object of the exercise is to identify what appear to be some key components that ought to feature in any model of foreign policy making in South Africa. No such model has yet been proposed in the handful of studies of South African foreign policy. This book will not do so either.
The facts will eventually test all our theories, and they form, after all, the only impartial jury to which we can appeal.
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz
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Notes to the Text
Wilkinson, DO, Comparative Foreign Relations: Framework and Methods, Dickinson, California, 1969, pp.110–13.
Munger, ES, Foreign Policy, op. cit., p.51.
Hermann, CF, “Decision structure and process influences on foreign policy”, in East, MA, et al. (Eds), Why Nations Act: Theoretical Perspectives for Comparative Foreign Policy Studies, Sage Publications, Beverley Hills, 1978, pp.69–90.
See Fleron, FJ, “System attributes and career attributes: the Soviet political leadership system, 1952 to 1965”, in Beck, C et al., Comparative Communist Political Leadership, David McKay, New York, 1973, pp.43–53. In a co-optation system, according to Fleron’s definition, the necessary technical skills required for running society “are acquired by coopting into the political elite members of various specialized elites in society, thus giving them direct access to the policy-making process”. The co-opted specialists enter into the political or party elite midway or late in their careers, i.e. after having spent at least seven years in a nonpolitical sector of society.
For an analysis of the 12-point plan, see Geldenhuys, DJ, Total National Strategy, op. cit., pp.10ff.
Kohl, WL, “The Nixon-Kissinger foreign policy system and US-European relations: patterns of policy making”, World Politics, Vol. 28, No. 1, October 1975, pp.1–43. Kohl served as a member of the National Security Council staff during 1970–71.
Hermann, MG, “Effects of personal characteristics of political leaders on foreign policy”, in East, MA, et al., op. cit., p.64.
Expression used by Russett, BM & EC Hanson, Interest and Ideology, WH Freeman, San Francisco, 1975, p.7. For overviews of the relevant literature,
see Hermann, CF, op. cit., pp.74–6, and
Hermann, MG, in East, MA et al., op. cit., pp.50–56.
Kissinger, HA, “Domestic structure and foreign policy”, in Rosenau, JN (Ed), International Politics and Foreign Policy: A Reader in Research and Theory, The Free Press, New York, 1969, pp.261–75. (Kissinger’s study was first published in 1966 before his appointment as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs and later as Secretary of State.)
Du Plessis, E, op. cit., pp.6 & 7.
See Geldenhuys, DJ, Anglo-South African Relations, op. cit., pp.354ff.
Quoted by Cockram, G-M, op. cit., p.124.
Wilkinson, DO, op. cit., pp.113 & 114.
Hermann, MG, in East, MA, et al., op. cit., pp.49–68, and
Hermann, MG, “Explaining foreign policy behaviour using the personal characteristics of political leaders”, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 1, March 1980, pp.7–46. The exposition of the conceptual framework is taken from the earlier study.
See Geldenhuys, DJ, Constellation, op. cit., pp.2ff.
Barber, J, British Foreign Policy, op. cit., pp.7–9 & 34–7. The two models not considered are the “pluralist perspective”, which assumes that “power is dispersed, that a variety of individuals, parties and groups inside and outside government are involved”, and the “public control perspective”, of which the principal premise is that “political activity and policy making take place within a setting of broad public awareness and response to government decisions”.
See Frankel, J, op. cit., pp.111–47, on values in foreign policy making.
Holsti, KJ, International Politics: A Framework for Analysis, Second Edition, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1967, p.175.
Olivier, GC, op. cit., pp.10 & 11, provides a useful summary of various conceptualisations of capability.
In particular, see ibid., pp.33–55. The summary offered in the present book is partly based on the categories used by Olivier.
Cline, RS, World Power Trends and US Foreign Policy for the 1980s, Westview Press, Boulder, 1980, p.136.
Olivier, GC, op. cit., p.49.
See Reynolds, PA, An Introduction to International Relations, Longman, London, 1971, p.97.
Frankel, J, op. cit., p.63.
See Norman, GE, “The Transkei: South Africa’s illegitimate child”, New England Law Review, Vol. 12, No. 3, Winter 1977, pp.614ff., and
Witkin, MF, “Transkei: an analysis of the practice of recognition — political or legal?”, Harvard International Law Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, Summer 1977, pp.621–6.
See Adelman, K, “South Africa/Israel: the club of pariahs”, Africa Report, Vol. 25, No. 6, November-December 1980, pp.8–11;
Harkavy, RE, “The pariah state syndrome”, Orbis, Vol. 21, No. 3, 1977, pp.623–49, and
Vale, PCJ, “South Africa as a pariah international state”, International Affairs Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1977, pp.121–41.
Hill, C, “Theories of foreign policy making for the developing countries”, in Clapham, C (Ed), Foreign Policy Making in Developing States: A Comparative Approach, Saxon House, Westmead, 1977, p.6.
Ibid., p.8.
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© 1984 D. J. Geldenhuys and the South African Institute of International Affairs
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Geldenhuys, D. (1984). Some Perspectives on South African Foreign Policy Making. In: The Diplomacy of Isolation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17501-7_8
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