The Cold War and the end of apartheid

The collapse of the Soviet Bloc was paralleled by dramatic events in South Africa, where the white minority regime eventually gave way to multiracial democracy in 1994. To what extent were these two developments connected? Was the end of apartheid the consequence of structural changes in the Cold War order or internal factors, as black protest rendered white minority government impossible? What role did American policy play here? Start with Saunders, then have a look at the debate between Guelke and Daniel. Kagan-Guthrie offers an American perspective, as well as a link to the previous week’s class on Angola – which is very much part of the story here.

Essay questions

1. 'The end of the Cold War was essential to the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.' Do you agree?

2. What part did American policy play in bringing an end to South Africa's apartheid regime?

Class Readings

*Chris Saunders, ‘The Ending of the Cold War and Southern Africa’, in Artemy Kalinovsky and Sergey Radchenko (eds), The End of the Cold War and the Third World (London: Routledge, 2011), 264-76.

Onslow, S. “Round Table: The end of the Cold War and the end of apartheid, April 1994,” Cold War History 24, no2 (2024), 309–315.

Saunders, C. “Two Endings: semi-historiographical musings,” Cold War History, 24(2), 24, no2 (2024), 317–322.

Guelke, A. “A Comparative Perspective on South Africa’s End of the Cold War,” Cold War History 24, no2 (2024), 323–328.

Zachary Kagan-Guthrie, ‘Chester Crocker and the South African Border War, 1981-89: A Reappraisal of Linkage’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 35 (2009), 65-80.

Further Readings

van Wyk, A.M. “The end of the cold war in Southern Africa: the fall of the nuclear wall,” Cold War History 24, no2 (2024), 329–333.

Shubin, V. “South Africa and end of the Cold War,” Cold War History 24, no2 (2024), 335–338.

Adrian Guelke, ‘The Impact of the End of the Cold War on the South African Transition’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 14 (1996), 87-100.

John Daniel, ‘A Response to Guelke: The Cold War Factor in South Africa’s Transition’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 14 (1996), 101-104.

Douglas Anglin, ‘Southern African Responses to East European Developments’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 28 (1990), 431-55.

Gary Baines & Peter Vale (eds), Beyond the Border War: New Perspectives on Southern Africa's Late-Cold War Conflicts (Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 2008).

Christopher Coker, The United States and South Africa, 1968–1985: Constructive Engagement and Its Critics (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1986).

Daniel Conway, ‘The Masculine State in Crisis: State Responses to War Resistance in Apartheid South Africa’, Men and Masculinities, 10 (2007), 1-18.

Daniel Conway, Masculinities, Militarization and the End Conscription Campaign: War Resistance in South Africa (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012).

Chester A. Crocker, High Noon in Southern Africa: Making Peace in a Rough Neighborhood (New York: W. W. Norton, 1992).

Joanne E. Davis, Constructive Engagement? Chester Crocker and American Policy in South Africa, Namibia and Angola, 1981-88 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007).

Saul Dubow, Apartheid, 1948-1994 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014) [e-book].

Stephen Ellis, ‘The South African Communist Party and the Collapse of the Soviet Union’, Journal of Communist Studies, 8 (1992), 145-59.

Graham Evans, ‘The Great Simplifier: The Cold War and Southern Africa’, in Alan P. Dobson, Shahin P. Malik, and Graham Evans (eds), Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Cold War (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), 136-151.

Hermann Giliomee, ‘Democratization in South Africa’, Political Science Quarterly, 110 (1995), 83-104.

Ben L. Martin, ‘American Policy Towards Southern Africa in the 1980s’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 27 (1989), 23–46.

William Minter, ‘Destructive Engagement: The United States and South Africa in the Reagan Era’, in Phyllis Johnson and David Martin (eds), Frontline Southern Africa: Destructive Engagement (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1988).

Sue Onslow (ed.), Cold War in Southern Africa: White Power, Black Liberation (London: Routledge, 2009).

Roger Pfister, Apartheid South Africa and African States, 1961-1994 (London: IB Tauris, 2005).

Johannes Rantete and Hermann Giliomee, ‘Transition to Democracy through Transaction? Bilateral Negotiations between the ANC and NP in South Africa’, African Affairs, 91 (1992), 515-42.

Hilary Sapire and Chris Saunders (eds), Southern African Liberation Struggles: New Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives (Cape Town: UCT Press, 2013).

Allister Sparks, Tomorrow is Another Country: The Inside Story of South Africa's Negotiated Revolution (Sandton: Struik Books, 1994).