Continuity and change in the foreign policies of South Africa's De Klerk and Mandela governments, 1989–1999

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The issue of continuity and change in foreign-policy analysis is one that receives scant scholarly attention, and South Africa is no exception. Even though the country is now almost two decades past the transitional period, and a good 14 years since Nelson Mandela stepped down as the first democratically elected President of South Africa, important lessons could still be drawn from the foreign-policy trends of this era. The foreign policies of South Africa's two governments during the transition, from 1989 to 1999, show features of both continuity and change, protestations to the contrary notwithstanding. Continuity and change often co-exist as a mixture or as dialectical opposites, making prediction of the future very uncertain. Continuity is often at play when it is least expected; and change can occur in the most unexpected of contexts.