Browsing by Author "Taylor, Ian"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Hegemony, 'common sense' and compromise : a neo-gramscian analysis of multilateralism in South Africa's post-apartheid foreign policy
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000-03) Taylor, Ian; Nel, P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Political Science.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study attempts to overcome past failings in the analysis of post-apartheid South Africa's foreign policy. In contrast to "explanations" offered by most previous analyses, this work demonstrates that the behaviour exhibited by Pretoria is not immutable or simply subject to the global "realities", but is derivative of the specific historic conjuncture of forces that joined together during the transition from apartheid, and which remain open-ended. The changes in the African National Congress' economic and political policies during the transition period are seen as the key to any attempt to understand Pretoria's post-1994 foreign policy behaviour. This is intimately connected to the structural changes in the international political economy and the change in the balance of international class forces brought about by the neo-liberal counter revolution. Deploying a theoretical framework derivative of the work of the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, this study situates South Africa's foreign policy in a world where the ideology of neo-liberalism has achieved hegemonic status amongst the transnational elite class - fractions of national elites, representing and reflecting the interests of money capital. Such a hegemonic project informs the beliefs of the Government of National Unity and the subsequent foreign policy activities postured by Pretoria. This study attempts to understand how and why the ANCacceded to the dominant discourse of neo-liberalism and why this must be contextualised within the structural constraints brought to bear upon the GNUin an increasingly globalised world. This accession to neo-liberal beliefs has gIVen nse to contradictions within the domestic polity between contending class fractions and within the ANC'sown ranks. This has provoked a fundamental tension in Pretoria's overall foreign policy, where on the one hand South Africa accepts the fundamental normative world order, whilst on the other pushes various reformist initiatives which seek to re-negotiate Pretoria's standing within this framework. Specifically, South Africa's behaviour in multilateral organisations has been marked by a tactical middlepowermanship role, essentially problem-solving, which seeks to smooth out the international system so that the ongoing world order may function as "efficiently" as possible. Such behaviour has been qualitatively different from the activist role that was expected from an ANC-led administration. Indeed, the activism exhibited by South Africa has been largely centred around the promotion of the liberalisation of markets and free trade, albeit tempered by an awareness of the need to reconcile its acceptance of the hegemonic order, with that of the appeals of a historically important fraction of its support constituency: the Left and labour. Attempts to reconcile these two positions, of promoting "free" trade whilst at the same time demanding "fair" trade for example, mirror the broader contradictions that have been evident in South African foreign policy. They reflect the historic compromise that saw the ANCcome to administrative power, and also the desire by the government to balance its neo-liberal credentials with certain reformist convictions. This has been most evident in Pretoria's behaviour in multilateral organisations. SLXmultilateral initiatives, and Pretoria's role within each, are examined: the World Trade Organisation, the Cairns Group, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Commonwealth, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Implications for future South African foreign policy are drawn out, and a critical eye cast on whether such roles played out by Pretoria are immutable, or subject to change.
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    Kenya’s New Lunatic Express: The Standard Gauge Railway
    (2020-10) Taylor, Ian
    Abstract: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims to integrate Africa into an ambitious Chinese-constructed infrastructure network that seeks to link the economies of participating countries to that of China’s. However, serious concerns about its cost for the host countries, the legacy and sustainability—alongside the social and environmental costs—of its projects have raised questions as to its value and long-term future. The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), linking Mombasa to Nairobi and beyond has been portrayed as a centre piece of the BRI in East Africa. Both the Chinese and Kenyan governments have represented the SGR as an example par excellence of Sino- African cooperation and the ubiquitous “win-win” partnerships that this is said to engender. However, serious issues with the SGR in terms of its cost, viability and practicality has meant that it is increasingly being seen within Kenya as an expensive white elephant beset with numerous intractable problems.
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    The liberal peace security regimen : a gramscian critique of its application in Africa
    (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 2018) Taylor, Ian
    Current security regimens are grounded in the advancement of liberal peace. All inter-governmental organizations, most states and most donor agencies more or less accept as common sense the self-evident virtuosity and truth of the liberal peace project. However, there is a profound contradiction within this project in Africa in that while this security regimen might reflect the impulses of a neoliberal hegemony, the very basic foundations of a domestic hegemonic project are in the main wholly absent. Equally, the nature of underdevelopment and dependency in the continent continues to undermine even basic autonomous state formation. These disjunctures mean that there is a distinct contradiction in promoting the current dominant security regimen in post-conflict scenarios in Africa. Instead, the liberal peace needs to be understood as a transnational project aimed at opening up African spaces for continued foreign penetration and exploitation.
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    The limits of the EU as a peace and security actor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
    (Hamburg University Press, 2011) Froitzheim, Meike; Soderbaum, Fredrik; Taylor, Ian
    The European Union (EU) is increasingly aspiring to be a global peace and security actor. Using the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as a test case to analyse such ambitions, this article reveals that the EU's attempts to build peace and security are severely compromised by its bureaucratic and organizational complexity as well as by its ineffective policies. In fact, the EU's state-centred approach in the DRC has resulted in the EU's inability to deal with 1) the realities of governance in the DRC and 2) the strong trans-border dimensions of the conflict. As a result, the EU continues to lack a coherent strategy for the DRC, despite a large budget. The analysis concludes that the EU is more concerned with establishing a symbolic presence and a form of representation than with achieving specific goals.