South Africa

In order to rationalize and expand upon the Foreign Policy Association’s coverage of Africa, the FPA has started a new blog with roots extending from the South Africa Blog. The Africa Blog will cover both continentwide issues as well as regional and country concerns. I will be the senior editor/blogger at the Africa blog while continuing my work here at the South Africa Blog.

The change will allow this blog to emphasize South African issues more specifically while still giving both the FPA and me a voice on larger African affairs. The biggest change will likely come in the fact that within the next few days I will shift coverage of Zimbabwe to the Africa blog. I hope that you will read and engage with both blogs.

My apologies for the light posting this week. I’ve been down and out with a nasty case of the flu for the last few days. Things will pick back up as I recover from my current zombie status.

In the meantime, you should read this piece on President Bush’s trip to Africa by the Foreign Policy Association’s Robert Nolan. His views in some ways dovetail with mine, though his assessments are perhaps ultimately more charitable than are mine, as I contend that the bar has been set so low with regard to American foreign policy toward Africa that Bush’s mixed record seems perhaps better than it is. Still, it is nice to know that I am not the only person giving the President some respect on this issue, however tepid and begrudging (in my case, at least).

I’d like to apologize for the paucity of posting. The Foreign Policy Association has been upgrading its blog server and there have been some glitches, but it looks like we’re back up and running. Thanks for your patience.

The Council on Foreign Relations has a feature on  how some think South Africa is underachieving in its role as a regional power. I’ve written that South Africa has to walk a tightrope in its role as a regional superpower. And it seems that much of the western consternation exists at least in part because South Africa taking a stronger role allows the west to abdicate a stronger role in the region. but it is nonetheless true that South Africa appears to have lost the plot with regard to its foreign affairs. Where once Mbeki preached a vibrant and engaging vision of Pan Africanism, now he appears content to traffic in platitudes and to operate out of narrow self interest. Of course there is a certain irony to the west complaining about South Africa placing self interest first in the queue, but that does not in and of itself mean that some of the criticisms going pretoria’s way are not warranted.

For my American readers, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

The Foreign Policy Association has posted its Great Decisions series updates for fall 2007. Please avail yourself of these wonderful resources. (Here is the South Africa update.)

The Foreign Policy Association has published another of my Great Decisions Analysis pieces. “The Vlok Trial and a Reconciliation With the Truth” looks at the recent criminal proceedings against Adriaan Vlok, South Africa’s Minister of Law and Order in the 1980s, and four other members of the security apparatus for a bizarre attempted murder that involved the attempted poisoning of the underwear of anti-Apartheid cleric Frank Chikane in hopes of killing him with neuro-toxins.

The case involves the intersection of my two main areas of interest in South Africa: the state response to the anti-Apartheid movement in the 1980s and the post-Apartheid push for truth, reconciliation, and justice. Almost literally as the piece was posted, it was announced that Vlok pleaded guilty along with his co-accused. By working out a deal, Vlok was able to avoid jail time, though he did receive a ten-year suspended sentence and one assumes that these may not be the last charges he sees.

(Cross-posted at dcat.)

The Foreign Policy Association’s own Robert Nolan has been reporting on the African Union Summit in Accra. His recent FPA piece on early steps to establish a United States of Africa can also be found at allAfrica.

My first FPA “Great decisions Analysis,” a piece titled “South Africa’s Regional Superpower Dilemma,” is now up and has also been linked on the FPA home page.