Being Africa’s BRIC(S) South Africa’s foreign policy turn from ‘neo-liberalism’ to the ‘new era’

This article explores the conduct of South Africa during its years of being Africa's only BRIC(S), until the BRICS Summit of 2023 which saw two other African states join the group. The transformation in South African foreign policy during the BRICS years owes much to its reading of the changing international system, one in which the declining West was being supplanted by emerging powers led by China's expanding economy, astute diplomacy and modernising military. Mindful of the shifting power relations, South Africa sought a position in BRICS and gradually aligned its foreign policy with its most powerful members. Shared ambitions for reform of glaring inequalities in the liberal international order at times gave way to apologist positions for violations of sovereignty and human rights. The South African case represents the dilemmas of the democratic Global South in responding to contemporary trajectories of change in the international system.