South Africa's World Position

In: The journal of modern African studies: a quarterly survey of politics, economics & related topics in contemporary Africa, Band 2, Heft 1, S. 41-54

Abstract

THIS article attempts to relate some of the ideas put forward by Professor Hans Morgenthau in his Politics Amongst Nations (New York, 1949) to the world position of South Africa, and then essays some more general reflections on the Republic's external situation today.Such a study should normally begin with an historical introduction, but South Africa's recent history is, perhaps, well enough known for this to be dispensed with, and for my present purposes it will suffice to recall that South Africa was recognised as a sovereign state after World War I, when she was a separate signatory of the Treaty of Versailles and of the League Covenant. There were, of course, constitutional developments after that which led first to the weakening and then to the breaking of the Commonwealth tie, but this did not affect South Africa's formal relations with foreign states. Her relationship with Britain was of great but decreasing importance; but from the standpoint of other powers this importance was political rather than constitutional, for South Africa could be influenced through the British connexion much as Panama can be influenced through the U.S.A.1