A responsibility to protect Africa from the West? South Africa and the NATO intervention in Libya

Abstract

This article will argue that South Africa’s widely misinterpreted approach to conflict mediation and peace building is informed by the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) experience of the transition to democracy in South Africa. This was particularly evident in the Libyan crisis, where South Africa was widely accused of exhibiting a morally duplicitous and ideologically rudderless foreign policy because of the manner in which it initially supported intervention and subsequently became one of the fiercest critics of the NATO campaign. It will be argued that this is an inaccurate caricature of South Africa’s foreign policy and that South Africa’s approach could in fact inject vital pluralism into debates about the future of humanitarian interventions in Africa. The article draws upon interviews with senior officials in the ruling ANC and South African officials who negotiated the UN Security Council resolutions that sanctioned intervention in Libya.