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Regions Africa Southern Africa South Africa

South Africa

Explore Foreign Affairs’ coverage of South Africa’s domestic politics and foreign relations, past and present.

Top Stories

Ramaphosa’s Last Chance

Can the ANC Root Out Corruption and Save South Africa—and Itself?

John Rapley

Read the full article

Sumaya Hisham / Reuters

A Trumpian Policy for Africa

South Africa’s High-Stakes, Low-Impact Election

Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh

The Shame Weapon

Rochelle Terman

South Africa’s Quest to Retake the Moral High Ground

Steven Friedman

History of South Africa: From 1902 to the Present

Nicolas van de Walle

Africa’s Seat at the Table

Landry Signé, Brahima Sangafowa Coulibaly

Order of Oppression

Ramaphosa’s Last Chance

The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning

Nicolas van de Walle

Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa After Apartheid

Nicolas van de Walle

“We Are Not Scared to Die”: Julius Malema and the New Movement for African Liberation

Nicolas van de Walle

How Apartheid Endures

Sisonke Msimang

Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements

Nicolas van de Walle

These Are Not Gentle People: Two Dead Men. Forty Suspects. The Trial That Broke a Small South African Town

Nicolas van de Walle

The Delusion of Knowledge Transfer: The Impact of Foreign Aid Experts on Policymaking in South Africa and Tanzania

Nicolas van de Walle

Understanding South Africa

Nicolas van de Walle

Africa’s Democratic Moment?

Judd Devermont, Jon Temin

How Far Can Populism Go in South Africa?

Erin Conway-Smith

Apartheid Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit

Nicolas van de Walle

Two Books on South Africa

Nicolas van de Walle

South Africa’s Misrepresented Land Debate

Africa’s Lost Leader: South Africa’s Continental Role Since Apartheid

Nicolas van de Walle

Building a Capable State: Service Delivery in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Nicolas van de Walle

South Africa’s Healthy Democracy

Daniel de Kadt, Evan Lieberman, Philip Martin

All Is Not Forgiven

Sisonke Msimang

Morning in South Africa

Nicolas van de Walle

Will South Africa Split Apart?

Bridges to Nowhere

Christopher Sabatini

Has South Africa Lost Its Way?

Jessica Piombo, Cherrel Africa

A Bitter Pill

Apartheid’s Long Shadow

James L. Gibson

Africa’s Anti-Poaching Problem

Alexander Kasterine

Mandela’s Unfinished Business

Tortured Townships

South Africa's Land Reform Crisis

Bernadette Atuahene

Irresponsible Stakeholders?

Stewart Patrick

Not Ready for Prime Time

Jorge G. Castañeda

Letter From Johannesburg: The ANC’s Party Crashers

The Challenge of Global Health

Mbeki's South Africa

Mandela, Mobutu, aned Me: A Newswoman's African Journey

Gail M. Gerhart

A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness

Gail M. Gerhart

From Cape to Congo: Southern Africa's Evolving Security Challenges; Security and Politics in South Africa: The Regional Dimension

Gail M. Gerhart

Overcoming Intolerance in South Africa: Experiments in Democratic Persuasion

Gail M. Gerhart

Thabo Mbeki's World: The Politics and Ideology of the South African President

Gail M. Gerhart

Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa's Transition to Democracy

Gail M. Gerhart

Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession; In the Company of Diamonds: Kleinzee, De Beers, and the Control of a Town

Gail M. Gerhart

Children of AIDS: Africa's Orphan Crisis

Gail M. Gerhart

Unequal Protection: The State Response to Violent Crime on South African Farms; Scared at School: Sexual Violence Against Girls in South African Schools

Gail M. Gerhart

Beyond Racism: Race and Inequality in Brazil, South Africa, and the United States

Gail M. Gerhart

After the TRC: Reflections on Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa; A Country Unmasked: Inside South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Gail M. Gerhart

Alfred B. Xuma: African, American, South African

Gail M. Gerhart

Upington: A Story of Trials and Reconciliation; Black Lawyers, White Courts: The Soul of South African Law

Gail M. Gerhart

The UDF: A History of the United Democratic Front in South Africa, 1983-1991; Beyond Our Wildest Dreams: The United Democratic Front and the Transformation of South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

Coming to Terms: South Africa's Search for Truth; Facing the Truth: South African Faith Communities and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Looking Back, Reaching Forward: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

Ending Africa's Wars

John J. Stremlau

The Pivotal States: A New Framework for U.S. Policy in the Developing World

NEW AND IMPROVED

Letter to the Editor

Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

The Soul of a Nation: Constitution-Making in South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

Rivonia's Children: Three Families and the Cost of Conscience in White South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

ANC: The View from Moscow

Gail M. Gerhart

A Question of Loyalty: Military Manpower Policy in Multiethnic States

Strange Bedfellows: Mandela, de Klerk, and the New South Africa

Mbeki's Uphill Challenge

Leonard Thompson

Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882-1990, Vol. 5, Nadir and Resurgence, 1964-1979

Harvey Glickman

White Man's Justice: South African Political Trials in the Black Consciousness Era; Politics by Other Means: Law in the Struggle Against Apartheid, 1980-1994

Gail M. Gerhart

Genealogies of Conflict: Class, Identity, and State in Palestine/Israel and South Africa

Antony J. Levine

Norms in International Relations: The Struggle Against Apartheid

Gail M. Gerhart

Scientific Racism in Modern South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

A Life

Gail M. Gerhart

Heart of Whiteness: Afrikaners Face Black Rule in the New South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

South Africa: Tough Road to Prosperity

R. Stephen Brent

Pivotal States and U.S. Strategy

Robert Chase, Emily Hill, Paul Kennedy

In Sight of Surrender: The U.S. Sanctions Campaign Against South Africa, 1946-1993

Gail M. Gerhart

South Africa: Twelve Perspectives on the Transition

Gail M. Gerhart

The New Is Not Yet Born: Conflict Resolution in Southern Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

Dealing With the Past: Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

Tomorrow Is Another Country: The Inside Story of South Africa's Negotiated Revolution

Gail M. Gerhart

Hard Right: The New White Power in South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

Why South Africa Gave Up the Bomb

J. W. de Villiers, Roger Jardine, Mitchell B. Reiss

South Africa’s Future Foreign Policy

Holding Together South Africa

J. Daniel O'Flaherty

South Africa: The Struggle for a New Order

Gail M. Gerhart

Ethnicity and Politics in South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

South Africa's Other Whites: Voices for Change

Gail M. Gerhart

After Apartheid: The Future of South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

The Last Years Of Apartheid: Civil Liberties In South Africa; In A Time Of Trouble: Law And Liberty In South Africa's State Of Emergency

Gail M. Gerhart

Lessons Of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960-1990

Gail M. Gerhart

Comrades Against Apartheid: The Anc And The Communist Party In Exile

Gail M. Gerhart

Bounds Of Possibility

Gail M. Gerhart

Changing Fortunes: War, Diplomacy, And Economics In Southern Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

Homes Apart: South Africa's Segregated Cities

Gail M. Gerhart

The Apartheid State In Crisis: Political Transformation In South Africa, 1975-1990

Gail M. Gerhart

The Anti-Politics Machine: "Development," Depoliticization, And Bureaucratic Power In Lesotho

Gail M. Gerhart

Mk: The Anc's Armed Struggle

Gail M. Gerhart

The Cape Of Storms: A Personal History Of The Crisis In South Africa

Gail M. Gerhart

The Killings In South Africa: The Role Of The Security Forces And The Response Of The State; South Africa: My Vision Of The Future

Gail M. Gerhart

A Democratic South Africa? Constitutional Engineering In A Divided Society

Gail M. Gerhart

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