Security and Politics in South Africa

In this analysis of South Africa's postapartheid security system, Peter Vale moves beyond a realist discussion of interacting states to examine southern Africa as an integrated whole. Vale argues that, despite South Africa's manipulation of state structures and elites in the region for its own ends, the suffering endured under the apartheid regime drew the region together at the popular level; and economic factors, such as the use of migrant labor, reinforced the process of integration. Exploring how the region is changing today - as transnational solidarity and a single regional economy remove the distinctions between national and international politics - he asks whether South African domination can finally be overcome and considers what sort of cosmopolitan political arrangement will be appropriate for southern Africa in the new century.