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Abstract
This paper revisits the literature on regional power-hood and its application to Africa with a view to answering two key questions: one, whether we can talk of regional hegemons in the continent in real terms, and two, whether group hegemonic leadership better explains regional hegemonic behavior in Africa. It uses Sandra Destradi conceptual framework and Miriam Prys' typology of regional power-hood to answer these questions, with South Africa and Nigeria as case studies. Using Prys' typology which distinguishes between regional detached powers, regional hegemons and regional dominators as an analytical framework, the paper confirms what already exists in the literature, viz. that neither South Africa nor Nigeria neatly fit the conception of regional hegemons in Africa. However, it uses both countries as empirical cases to argue that they already act as hegemonic leaders and in cooperative ways that suggest group or shared leadership, using specific Common African Positions they have led in Africa. The analysis concludes by laying out the normative basis for a Group Hegemony composed of not only South Africa and Nigeria, but also other sub-regional leaders in the continent. This is based on the hard power shortfalls and internal weaknesses of both our case studies including their relative soft power resources which have utility in an increasingly intersocial international system.

In October 2016, the University of Pretoria, in association with Brand South Africa, hosted the first Nation Brand University Dialogue. For most participants, this was a rare opportunity to interrogate the need for a nation brand, assess the factors that shape it, examine the reciprocal effect between nation branding and the policy environment, and consider its potential limitations. From the ten presentations and extended panel discussion presented during the Dialogue, we chose to include five in this special focus because each reviewed a specific strategic aspect of nation branding.Branding as a concept is often restricted to the world of business and the marketing of products and services. But while promoting a nation's brand does rely on marketing tactics, the political scientists studying branding acknowledge that its purpose is far broader. From a strategic perspective, nation branding seeks to grow a positive predisposition towards a country's principles, policies and products, which, in turn, is used to leverage a nation's soft power authority to advocate forspecific objectives in the world's centres of power.

Twenty years of democratic South Africa inspires many scholars to look back, reflect on the achievements and failures and take stock of the current situation, maybe even to cast a view on possible future scenarios. This issue of the Strategic Review for Southern Africa is one of many efforts to engage with social realities in the context of a post-apartheid society; a society, where controlled change with the negotiated transition to regular democratic elections in a multi-party pluralist setting resulted to some extent in changed control. We are confronted with socio-economic, as well as political realities affected by and facing the challenges of structural legacies. The transitions and transformations documented re-alignments within a social and political framework, but often rather modified instead of transcended the previous systemic boundaries. The lack of fundamental shifts towards a genuinely people-centered development stands in strong contrast to the new elite policy and the relative privileges secured by its beneficiaries in the echelons of state and administration and the private sector. The emerging trends have been dubbed by some scholars as the 'limits to liberation'. The aim of this special issue is to contextualise the efforts, hopes, aspirations, declared goals and the setbacks, measured against the expectations with regard to different sectors, and cross cutting issues pertinent to contemporary South African society.

South Africa, the continental economic giant and self-appointed spokesman for African development, is finding its distinctive national voice. Emboldened by the invitation to join the BRICS grouping, its membership of the G20 and a second term on the UN Security Council, Pretoria is beginning to capitalize on the decade of continental and global activism undertaken by Thabo Mbeki to assume a position of leadership. Gone is the defensive posturing which characterized much of the ANC's post-apartheid foreign policy, replaced by an unashamed claim to African leadership. The result is that South Africa is exercising a stronger hand in continental affairs, ranging from a significant contribution to state-building in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, to an unprecedented assertiveness on Zimbabwe. But this new assertiveness remains constrained by three factors: the unresolved issue of identity, a host of domestic constraints linked to material capabilities and internal politics, and the divisive continental reaction to South African leadership. These factors continue to inhibit the country's ability to translate its international ambitions and global recognition into a concrete set of foreign policy achievements. (International Affairs (Oxford) / SWP)

"Ambitionierte Ziele prägen Südafrikas Außenpolitik. Das Land verfolgt eine Politik des kontinentalen und globalen Aktivismus. Nicht zu unterschätzende Lasten erschweren dies jedoch: die Schwäche der eigenen Volkswirtschaft, die Debatte um die Rolle auf dem afrikanischen Kontinent und der Balanceakt zwischen Solidarität mit dem Süden und Anbindung an den Westen. Ohne die Lösung seiner nationalen Probleme und die Durchsetzung seiner kontinentalen Führungsrolle werden die Ziele kaum zu erreichen sein." (Autorenreferat)