Coming in from the cold: the Transitional Executive Council and South Africa’s reintegration into the international community

South Africa’s ‘miraculous’ transition from apartheid to democracy,1990–1994, has been widely investigated in the current literature, but the activities of the Transitional Executive Council, and, more importantly, those of its composite sub-councils have been neglected. This study analyses the significant influence the Sub Council on Foreign Affairs (SCFA) had on the shape of South Africa’s foreign policy after April 1994. The influence the Department of Foreign Affairs had over the organisation and activities of the SCFA is also explored. In shaping
the final recommendations of the Sub Council, so that they closely represented those of the Department, the SCFA’s proposals also reflected the norms and values of the wider international community. It is argued that entrenched domestic and international interests ‘captured’ the new South Africa’s foreign policy, seriously impinging on the African National Congress’s room for manoeuvre internationally and ultimately acting as a significant factor in accounting for the country’s perceived inconsistent foreign policy after 1994.