Apartheid, 1948–1994 by Saul Dubow; Inside South Africa’s Foreign Policy: Diplomacy in Africa from Smuts to Mbeki by John Siko

DOI10.1177/0020702016663173
Date01 September 2016
Published date01 September 2016
AuthorRoel van der Velde
Subject MatterBook Reviews
points out). Instead, to take again the Israeli example, even the secular Jews in Israel
are orthodox secularJews. Walzer neglects to discuss the question of why such liberal
forms of religion have faltered in all of his examples. Nor does he discuss how a
process of ‘‘ne gotiation’’ of i lliberal tradi tions can avoi d sacrif‌icing the freedoms of
some as compromises on the way to a negotiated liberation.
Walzer is at his best when he eschews the attempt at comparison and discusses
with nuance and sensitivity the specif‌icities of each case. His portrayal of each
nation’s struggle of liberation is edifying and provides insights that, on their
own, would have made for a suf‌f‌iciently worthwhile study of the topic.
Ultimately, however, Walzer fails to achieve his stated goal of ‘‘understanding’’
the phenomenon he describes. In part, it is because he gives himself so much leeway
in presenting his argument that it is not clear that there is truly a phenomenon that
requires understanding at all. But it is also because, even within the terms that he
sets, he of‌fers far more questions than answers.
Saul Dubow
Apartheid, 1948–1994
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 384pp. £58.00 (hardback)
ISBN: 978–0–19955–066–1
John Siko
Inside South Africa’s Foreign Policy: Diplomacy in Africa from Smuts to Mbeki
London: I.B. Tauris, 2014. 288pp. £69.00 (hardback)
ISBN: 978–1–78076–831–1
Reviewed by: Roel van der Velde (Roel.vandervelde@port.ac.uk), School of Languages and
Area Studies, University of Portsmouth, UK
As the fourth African National Congress (ANC) leader to become the president of
South Africa, Jacob Zuma once boasted that the party which had defeated racial
segregation would rule the country ‘‘until Jesus comes.’’
1
Twenty years on, the once
exemplary democracy sees its very institutions crumbling under cronyism and cor-
ruption. Even before his 2016 Speech of the Nation was heckled by opposition,
Zuma found himself grappling with disgruntled voters, racial tensions, and a lar-
gely self-inf‌licted economic crisis.
2
To fully understand present-day South African
1. ‘‘Zuma: The ANC will rule until Jesus comes back,’’ Mail & Guardian, 8 January 2014, http://mg.co.
za/article/2014-01-08-zuma-the-anc-will-rule-forever (accessed 25 August 2015).
2. Norimitsu Onishi, ‘‘First black leader of South Africa’s opposition seeks to unseat the A.N.C.,’’
New York Times, 24 July 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/world/africa/mmusi-maimane-
south-africa-democratic-alliance-anc.html (accessed 17 August 2015); ‘‘South Africa’s democracy:
The hollow state,’ Economist, 19 December 2015, http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-
and-africa/21684146-two-decades-after-south-africas-transition-non-racial-democracy (accessed 21
February 2016); Lynley Donnelly, ‘‘SONA 2016 analysis: Zuma’s ‘business as usual’ approach
insufficient,’’ Mail & Guardian, 12 February 2016, http://mg.co.za/article/2016-02-12-sona-2016-
business-as-usual (accessed 21 February 2016).
504 International Journal 71(3)

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