| | The foreign policy pursued by the Reagan administration in southern Africa was, particularly from 1981 to 1985, congruent with its assumed role as an imperial state exercising global hegemony in defence of capitalism. The Reagan presidency interpreted all foreign policy in terms of global considerations of US rivalry with the Soviet Union. The conflicts of the region were understood not in their own terms but as extensions of superpower competition and responses were formulated accordingly. The Reagan years saw support for SA, hostility towards African demands for self-determination, obstruction of a Namibian peace settlement and tacit approval of Pretoria's attacks on neighbouring states. The Bush administration has started more cautiously but indications of continuity with the Reagan years are already emerging and there is cause for concern that pressure on SA through sanctions, however limited, will not be maintained. |
