Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
8-2008
Abstract
This article places South Africa's foreign policy towards the Middle East in the context of the country's general foreign policy. South Africa is classified as a middle power, given its penCHANt for international 'bridge-building' and multilateralism. With regard to the Middle East, South Africa has frequently offered itself as a mediator in the region's various conflicts and continues to do so. However, the argument proposed here is that there is an 'anti-imperialist' strain in South Africa's foreign policy that renders it unlikely to be regarded as an impartial broker in the various Middle East conflicts. South Africa's middle power proclivities, as well as its anti-imperialist tendencies, are demonstrated with regard to Iran's nuclear ambitions, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, recent events involving Lebanon, and Hamas's 2006 electoral victory.
Keywords
South African foreign policy, Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq
Discipline
International Relations | Political Science
Research Areas
Political Science
Publication
Round Table
Volume
97
Issue
397
First Page
547
Last Page
559
ISSN
0035-8533
Identifier
10.1080/00358530802207344
Publisher
Taylor and Francis
Citation
JORDAAN, Eduard.(2008). Barking at the big dogs: South Africa's foreign policy towards the Middle East. Round Table, 97(397), 547-559.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/563
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1080/00358530802207344