Bridging the Rift: The New South Africa in Africa

Despite the lingering effects of more than a decade of sanctions and economic stagnation, South Africa retains the most powerful, industrialized, and diversified economy in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, as a post-apartheid future is constructed and as the old political and economic barriers with the rest of the continent crumble, it is probable that there will be a sustained increase in political and economic interaction between the “hobbled leviathan” of the South and its neighbors. What repercussions will follow from this process? To what extent will it enhance or constrain prospects for political and economic development in the rest of the region? Who will be the main agents and beneficiaries of this expanded interchange? What security consequences, broadly conceived, will result? In this volume, contributors explore these issues by carefully situating their analyses within the twin contexts of a changing world order and the demands for South Africa–centered reconstruction and development.