South Africa in Southern Africa: Reconfiguring the Region

Simon, David, (ed.). South Africa in Southern Africa: Reconfiguring the Region. Oxford, Athens, Cape Town: James Currey, Ohio University Press, David Philip, 1998. 259 pp.

This collection of essays looks at the whole region of Southern Africa rather than at its individual parts. Thus only three essays bare the name of a country in their title. The subject matter includes issues of: conservation; sugar production; electric power; foreign policy; military downsizing; small arms control; transportation corridors; migration; and HIV/AIDS. The fourteen essayists with on-site African experience are from social science fields: half from geography; four in economics; two in international or military studies; and one from ecology. The ten regional states are: Angola; Botswana; Lesotho; Malawi; Mozambique; Namibia; South Africa; Swaziland; Zambia; Zimbabwe. Other states occasionally attached to the region: the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Tanzania; Mauritius; and Seychelles. Regional status rests on contiguous geographic locations, and on common historical and environmental interests. (p. 15, p. 244)

Editor David Stone believes that there is "growing disillusionment" with nation state and the "United Nations system" studies. Interest is increasing in studies of non-state actors, "organizations from below," and international bodies "from above." Nations are ceding power to intergovernmental and non-governmental groups, and civilian bodies are assuming greater influence in many countries. (p. 1) Stone argues that cold war era analysis focused too much on the most powerful states, and paid too little attention to interstate relations. Transition periods, such as that from cold war to post-cold war, are nearly always eras of "exceptional excitement, openness, flux, experimentation, uncertainty and even tension and contradiction." (p. 7) After a period of instability "a new state of 'normality' evolves." This "normality" is not static, but transitional. This book aims to analyze the importance of the 1990s transitional era by studying selected themes that transcend cities, provinces and nations, and emphasizing regional dynamics where "entrenched politico-military obstacles . . . have now been largely swept away. (p. 243, p. 245)

In the 1990s international changes affected Southern Africa, as did the region's internal flux that "greatly improved" relations between South Africa, the area's dominant state, and the other nine states, after South Africa's apartheid apparatus collapsed. Relations also benefited from what Stone calls the hope for "mutual benefit" (benefits flowing from anticipated reparations by South Africa for its abuse of neighbors during its minority rule) and a "peace dividend" from the lowering of military costs in the region. But hope exceeded the reality of what the new situation would provide, (p. 4, p. 246)

On reducing military expenditures, thus providing a "peace dividend" that would permit a shift of funds from the military to social programs and investment, the authors argue that the shift was real. Aggregate military expenditures, which peaked in 1993, declined by 28.2 per cent in South Africa, allowing for a substantial increase in spending on health, education and housing without increasing the budget, (p. 10) As a whole, the states in the region cut their aggregate military costs more than South Africa. Military expenditures increased only in Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, (p. 9) At the same time nations of the region gave more attention to military training that merged former guerrilla forces with national armies, and to peacekeeping activities. There was also a shift from state control of armed force to privatized security companies in urban areas, and private military operations by armed mercenaries hired by governments of the region, (p. 11) The latter is a matter of concern due to the lack of supervision by states or regional agencies.

The authors place considerable emphasis on the rationalization of, membership and objectives of formal regional institutions that include the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), and a Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). As of 1997 they had been unable to merge or dissolve or agree on a new division of labor, (pp. 12-13)

Although these essays will suffer from their 1997 perspective as events move into the twenty-first century, they will nevertheless offer a well-conceived period piece of how Southern Africa stood three to five years into the post-colonial, post-cold war, post-apartheid, post-Mandela, and even a post-modern era.

Norman H. Murdoch University of Cincinnati

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