When a Giant became a ‘Reluctant Peacekeeper’: South Africa and Peacekeeping Operations between 1994–2003

Abstract

South Africa joined the international community after its transformation from apartheid to democracy in 1994. The transformation created its own reverberations both regionally and globally as democratic South Africa aroused high hopes that it would assume leadership on the continent. With the help of Pretoria, it was hoped, Africa could solve its own problems. However, South Africa did not fully assume this expected role until 2003. Its low level participation, especially in peacekeeping in Africa—the theme of this article—should be attributed to its own domestic consolidation preoccupations, lack of training and incoherency in its foreign policy until roughly the early twenty-first century.