SA

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SAs Foreign Policy Practice

• Dr Siphamandla Zondi
• Programme Dir for Africa
• 8 May 2007

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Challenges

• What is our fundamental/ultimate value of our
  Foreign Policy?
• What is there for SA in our pursuit of foreign
  policy?
• As distinct from supreme/broad goals of world
  Africa peace
• Danger of subverting self-interests to elusive
  internationalist agenda
• Domestic pressures and misconceptions
• Idealism versus realism
• How realistic are our goals how practicable
• Are our strategic partners really so- convergence
  of shared values, principles and goals Nigeria
  on Cote dIvoire

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Global Governance

• 3 pillars
• Reform of political power architecture
• UN security and management reform
• But also promotion of multilateralism through all
  platforms, especially G8 and bilaterals with
• Reform of the financial institutions
• Tricky endeavour given that in the ethos
  democracy is secondary to shareholder interests
• Shifting focus of hegemonic forces towards
  private/national institutions such as Export
  Credit Agencies
• Aid dependency means IFIs have sufficient
  ground to maintain their business demand-side
  issues

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Global Governance

• Reform of the trade system towards a fairer and
  equitable regime
• Will giving the current system a developmental
  dimension alter the unfair trade system? Or will
  it simply buy out critics as trade off for
  maintaining the status quo?
• Will require strong trade position for Africa and
  the south, i..e. competitiveness and negotiation
  positions what are we doing within the AU and
  NEPAD platforms to advance an comprehensive
  long-termish agenda?

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Global Governance

• Consolidating (rebuilding?) south alliance
• For what?
• Developmental paradigm China etc
• Democracy and development India etc
• Bargaining influence/leverage Venezuela et al
• Whatever the option, MDGs and Monterrey
  Consensus seem good content for global posture
• Which platforms do we consider strategic and
  therefore worth investing in?
• Building IBSA
• Leveraging NAM
• Strengthening G20, G77 . Which institutional
  modality?
• Strategic partners across continents can we see
  that in the pattern of our resource utilization
  not just numbers but quality appointments

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Global Governance

• North-South co-operation G8, EU and OECD
  leveraging bilateral relations for African agenda
• Balancing national and continental agenda? at
  some point AU will need own mechanism to allow
  nation states to pursue ultimate value versus
  supreme values
• But US is unavoidable as both a nation state and
  a power bloc in itself What are we saying about
  AGOA and its capacity to undercut or advance
  NEPAD agenda
• How do we respond to changing French Policy in
  Africa under Sarkozy? Hesitant and selective
  France to wrestle a quarter of Africa from
  France?

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Global Development

• Consolidating UN gains in putting development at
  the centre so Copehagen, Rio, WSSD, etc
• Leveraging MDGs and resist deviation from them
• Are we prepared in real detail to do this? (one
  small unit on development, but if it worked
  closely with relevant departments it would be
  effective)
• Promoting an agenda for financing development
  who will be key north partners (who matter most)
• UN developmental institutions may be too many and
  may have developed weakness but UN institutions
  would still be crucial

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Global Security

• Begins with multilateralism with a democratic UN
  Security Council
• A good sense of what spaces SA hopes to occupy in
  this complex arena, a domain for the most
  powerful
• The dominant powers want own security from
  proliferation of arms, armed resistance to their
  global power
• SA should have an answer for them too on issues
  like WMD, terrorism, etc
• Principled, but strategic intervention in key
  hotspots in the Middle East Palestine, Iraq and
  Afghanistan North Korea guided by our goals
• 1. Development remains primary 2. Peaceful
  resolution

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African Agenda

• Strengthening AU institutionally
• But how when we do not deploy strategically
  within the AU? Who is going to leverage our
  agenda inside the institution?
• A long list of priorities, which are most
  crucial? AU capacity to champion and implement
  --- oversight institutions --- NEPAD integration
  (the Strat Plan?) --- support critical policies
  e.g. post-conflict reconstruction
• More strategic targeting to create a momentum for
  a similar attitude at AU
• Clarity of which bilaterals will scafold this
  endeavour

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African Agenda

• The goal of greater continental unity is a noble
  oneS
• AU consolidation
• AU-REC interface
• REC rationalization process (but our position on
  SACU/SADC though tricky, but problemmatic)
• Continental unity be anchored on a well-convassed
  agenda --- NEPAD is sufficient basis
• Where is NEPAD? --- what are we actually doing
  to keep it central as a vision and programme?
• Overshadowed by its component APRM
• Whether the hand-over to others was wise
  inspite of a need to avoid SA hegemony the
  agenda needs champions, SA is one

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African Agenda

• Peace diplomacy
• Consolidating gains made as a priority what is
  the plan?
• Balancing expectations and capacity
• Developing internal capacity as a long term
  strategic goal to position SA as a world leader
  in peace diplomacy
• Is the training agency consciously building peace
  diplomacy skills
• Do they make use of former ambassadors and envoys
  in teaching programmes?
• Are they deliberately building a knowledge base
  for future record, i.e. keeping a record of
  expertise, building an institutional memory, but
  also pro-active teaming up with experts to
  develop new strategic and tactical approaches?

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SADC Component

• Vital institutional mechanism for SA strategic
  objectives and as a spring board
• SA agenda on SADC is finishing institutional
  reform for stronger capacity, deepening
  integration (RISDP)
• But who are the technical and political stewards?
• SA numbers in staff has dwindled
• Urgent injection of purpose, focus and energy
  into the operations of SADC --- fresh ideas,
  strategic appointments and partners
• SADC National Committee for SA - delayed??

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Critical Issues

• Participation in multilateral institutions UN,
  AU, SADC, WTO, IMF, World Bank
• Functionality and efficacy of BNCs over 30 of
  them, aggressive pursuit of more
• Public diplomacy reactive media statements
  rather than active engagement with the citizens
  on what their countrys foreign policy positions
  are
• Audit of our diplomatic capital a combination of
  diplomatic missions, individuals and political
  championing
• The role of FSI in training cadets could be
  expanded to think-and-do tank within DFA use
  former ministers and envoys
• Internal DFA capacity vacancy levels, but
  competency at desk level?

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Critical Issues

• Balance between political and economic
• Agenda setting and implementation
• Actual diplomacy economic diplomacy?
• Are we using the World Cup prospect to advance
  our IR agenda?
• DFA-SASS interface very crucial as two organs for
  IR, but how well do they co-ordinate?
• SASS is supposed to identify strategic
  opportunities to advance SAs national interests
• DFA does the same and goes further to openly
  advance it
• Do we have the managerial and technical capacity
  to achieve our goals we envision leadership
• Yet, we are cautious and hesitant sensitive
• Yet no major progress has been made without bold
  championing ----- AU, NEPAD, APRM, SADC reforms,
• The inherent tensions between political expansion
  and corporate penetration

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• How do we link our huge investment to value added
  to SAs agenda and own interests?
• Not just peace diplomacy
• But African Diaspora conference
• PAP
• Not that we should not invest, but must follow
  this up with neat diplomacy and stewarding of
  initiatives to ensure our goals are achieve
  rather than surrender to others we presume share
  our goals
• Certain missing priorities
• Arguably, the most prominent weakness is the weak
  economies linked to narrow production base and
  resource-dependency what is the common approach?

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