The Evolution of the ANC's Foreign Policy towards Southern Africa, 1960-1999

This thesis explores the evolution of the foreign policy of the African National Congress (ANC) predominantly towards Southern Africa, 1960-1999. It addresses three periods in the ANC‟s historical trajectory. These are the formulation and implementation of the ANC‟s foreign policy in exile from 1960 until 1990; the search for a 'new' direction during South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy, 1990-1994; and the initial stages of democratic rule under the leadership of the ANC, until 1999. In doing so, this dissertation charts the important continuities and discontinuities in the formulation and implementation of the movement's foreign policy from exile to political power.

By tying together themes, previously treated in isolation, this thesis overcomes important limitations in the literature. In particular, by taking the entire forty year period as a whole, it develops new insights into not only the historic evolution of the ANC's foreign policy, but the very nature of the ANC as a liberation movement and political party. It is an approach that takes on particular significance when the defining events of foreign policy formulation during South Africa's transition, 1990-1994, are taken into account. This thesis argues that the transition period is a pivotal hinge and is informed as much by the trajectory of South Africa's, and the ANC's own histories, as the changing international world order of the early 1990s. The events and decisions of the transition era had significant effects on the formation of a 'new' foreign policy for South Africa. These under-researched years are crucial to understanding the future shape and direction of South African foreign policy under the ANC-led government after 1994. By establishing historic continuities, by emphasising the pivotal moment of the transition, and by disaggregating 'the' ANC, this thesis suggests new ways of interpreting the ANC‟s foreign policy.