The main purpose of this project is to analyse South Africa’s Foreign Policy towards its own region and towards Latin America (Brazil and Argentina) on a comparative basis and to discuss its role as a regional-middle-emerging power: Leadership? Bandwagoning? Follower? Gateway or Gatekeeper?
Africa and South Africa are nowadays more attractive than in the past, due to domestic and international conditions. Because of the continent’s natural resources it is likely that a new scramble of Africa could take place if the African leaders are not aware of their strategic situation.
Although South Africa plays a relevant role as an African country in international relations, its government tries to avoid being stigmatised as “the big brother” though it cannot refrain from promoting itself as the entrance gate to Africa. The idea of “bridge-builder” is always present in all speeches despite a “hands-off approach” to avoid critics from other African countries.
A similar situation occurs in South America with Brazil’s international performance, either regionally and globally. Some comparisons will therefore be made concerning these topics.
