Post-Apartheid South Africa and United States National Security.

Abstract

Abstract : The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of continued engagement with post-apartheid South Africa to United States national security. It is based on the realist premise that the U.S. has limited national interests in Sub-Saharan Africa which would be best served by a regional security strategy explicitly predicated on engagement with South Africa. The paper is presented in six chapters. Chapter One places South Africa in regional perspective as Sub-Saharan Africa's pivotal state through an analysis of its political, economic, and military dimensions of national power. Chapter Two describes U.S. national interests in Sub-Saharan Africa. These interests -- South Africa's transition to democracy, continued U.S. access to strategic minerals, the security of U.S. economic interests, and the security of sea lines of communication -- focus on South Africa and the Southern African sub-region. Chapter Three provides an analysis of the Sub-Saharan African strategic environment. South Africa offers the United States the greatest opportunity for meaningful engagement in a strategic environment which is generally characterized by dysfunctional political and economic regimes and their attendant social conditions. Chapter Four describes the emergence of a U.S. policy for Sub-Saharan Africa which implicitly recognizes South Africa as the region's pivotal state. Chapter Five is a critical analysis of U.S. regional strategy for Sub- Saharan Africa. This chapter demonstrates that there are significant discontinuities in U.S. policy and strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa. In effect, the U.S. lacks a comprehensive strategy for Sub- Saharan Africa; there are only a group of loosely coordinated political, economic, security, and informational policy initiatives which provide the semblance, but not the substance of a regional strategy.