South Africa – New Player in an Old Game?

Acceptance of universal norms is one of the most important aspects of the global order. Iran, through the conduct of its nuclear program, grew to be seen as a challenger of the global non-proliferation norms, recognized as having almost universal recognition. Yet, even liberal democracies have widely differed in their responses to the Iranian nuclear program. That is why the case of South Africa has been so interesting–a rising African power in the international system, subscribing to a global norm of nuclear non-proliferation but challenging its interpretation and application. The present paper asks why so? This research brings about two potential arguments about why South Africa pursued a policy of relative accommodation towards Iran –alternative norm entrepreneurship and economic interests – will be analyzed simultaneously to establish why South Africa’s interpretation and application of the non-proliferation norms differed from other liberal democratic states. The empirical basis for the article comes from the field research in Pretoria and numerous interviews with South African policy-makers, researchers and academics. The presented paper enlightens not only our understanding of the bilateral relations between two regional powers of which one has clearly wider aspirations. Even more importantly, it will shed light on how a rising non-Western power approaches international norms long thought to be universal. While existing research on international norms has focused on the Western world, the growing importance of non-Western countries calls for the re-focusing of the existing research agendas. Moreover, the present paper will bring new insights into how South Africa (as the main African power) sees its role in the future multipolar world.