South Africa’s international standing reached a peak in 1945 but then gradually deteriorated during the apartheid period. It then reached a new peak in the mid-1990s but again this has been followed by a period of deterioration. In part this has been due to the economic failings of the ANC government, but it has also been due to several crucial missteps in foreign policy. The continuing decline of the ANC party-state could produce a complete denouement in the country’s international standing, perhaps followed by a third re-launch. RW Johnson will discuss the international implications of the decline of the ANC.
About the speaker
RW Johnson was a Natal Rhodes Scholar who was for 26 years a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Magdalen College, Oxford. He has also taught widely at other universities, including a two-year stint at the Sorbonne in Paris. He was head of the HSF in 1995–2001, having returned to SA permanently after the end of apartheid. He and Lawrie Schlemmer wrote the definitive study of the 1994 election. In total Mr Johnson has written sixteen books and innumerable articles, having served as Southern African correspondent for both The Times and Sunday Times (London).
Cost
- Entrance is free for SAIIA members
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Related material
Presentation: The strange evolution of South Africa’s foreign policy