Exploring Exceptionalism in Foreign Policy Discourses: How can we understand South Africa’s unconstitutional and ineffective withdrawal from the Rome Statute?

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International Relations

Dept. of Global Political Studies Bachelor programme – IR103L 15 credits thesis

Exploring Exceptionalism in Foreign

Policy Discourses

How can we understand South Africa’s unconstitutional and

ineffective withdrawal from the Rome Statute?

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Abstract

This thesis seeks to understand South Africa’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute with a focus on the defective nature of the underlying decision-making process which resulted in an unconstitutional and ineffective withdrawal. To make sense of this procedural irrationality, the self-understanding of the central decision-making unit, the South African executive, was studied by applying the analytical framework of comparative exceptionalism. For this purpose, a qualitative content analysis was conducted which has highlighted particularist and universalist arguments in the discourse of the executive. The findings revealed that a superior morality is discursively constructed by referring to the moral mission of the ANC, South Africa’s strict adherence to its historical values, and to the country’s universal ‘Vision of a Better Africa and a Better world’. Overall, a virtually divine self-understanding as being the ‘moral compass’ in global politics is evident. It is concluded that despite making unilateral implications, the withdrawal from the Rome Statute neither signals a shift towards exemptionalism in South Africa’s foreign policy nor reflects an advancement towards regional hegemony. Rather, it demonstrates the large discrepancies between South Africa’s self-understanding and the prevalent challenges that the government is facing domestically and internationally, which are increasingly hindering its nation-building efforts.

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1. Introduction

South Africa’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute (RS), the multilateral treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has represented a much debated case in the field of International Relations and its sub-field of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). While scholars have used system-level, rationalist and constructivist approaches to make sense of the causes and motivations for the withdrawal, none of the existing expositions have accounted for the defective nature of the decision-making process, which has been the unconstitutionality and invalidity of the withdrawal due to a lack of parliamentary approval. In order to further explore and test the hunch that South Africa was pressurised by Burundi which had taken concrete steps towards leaving the ICC shortly before, this thesis responds to the question “How can South Africa’s ineffective withdrawal from the Rome Statute be understood in

relation to its exceptionalist self-understanding?”. It contributes to the field of International

Relations by focusing on the central decision-making unit, in fact, the South African executive, by exploring its self-understanding as an actor in the foreign policy sphere. By doing so, it can help politicians and academics understand the foreign policy behavior of middle powers whose foreign policy discourse involves a large gap between ambition and actual power capacities.

Despite its strong initial support of the court, South Africa withdrew from the ICC in 2016. With this action, the country followed the African Union’s (AU) call for non-cooperation with the ICC which was based on a sense of resentment due to the court’s alleged Afro-centrism. Strikingly, the notification of withdrawal was found to be unconstitutional by South Africa’s own Constitutional Court and thus, had to be cancelled. In order to account for these events, scholars have studied the influence of national hegemonic interests (Boehme 2017; Isike and Ogunnubi 2017), elitist interests of the executive (Duplessis and Mettraux 2017) as well as leaders’ operational codes (Thakur 2018), norms, roles and identities (Grant and Hamilton 2016; Vilmer 2016) involved in the decision. Following Vilmer’s (2016:1327) cue that Burundi’s pending withdrawal acted as a source of pressure, this thesis argues that as a result of an exceptionalist self-understanding, the executive sought to pre-empt Burundi’s notification of withdrawal, skipping essential parliamentary steps in their process of withdrawing. It therefore seeks to explore the self-understanding manifested in and constituted by the foreign policy discourse of the South African executive.

The approach used to more deeply explore and test the mentioned proposition is based on the constructivist theoretical framework of comparative exceptionalism (Nymalm and

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Plagemann 2019) which sheds light on the self-understanding of the executive. Responding to the exclusive use of descriptive methods in the existing literature, qualitative content analysis was chosen as a method for the analysis section of this thesis, as it allows in-depth interpretations whilst staying systematic in its conduct. The data used in the analysis consists of eight official speeches by president Zuma and the two foreign ministers appointed during his presidency. After analysing their foreign policy discourses, three main arguments were identified by which a superior morality is constructed, making a strong case for South African exceptionalism based on a self-understanding as being a ‘moral compass’ in world politics. The thesis finds that despite the unilateral implications involved, South Africa’s withdrawal from the RS does not signal a shift in the country’s foreign policy orientation towards exemptionalism. By revealing the increasing discrepancies that exist between South Africa’s divine self-understanding and the less promising realities that the country is facing domestically and internationally, it is concluded that the theory of exceptionalism helps to make sense of the irrational aspects of the executive’s decision to withdraw from the RS.

The subsequent sections of this thesis include a review of existing literature on the case, which is followed by the introduction of exceptionalism as an analytical framework. The following section deals with methodological questions on the study’s ontological and epistemological foundations, its choice of method and data, as well as the coding scheme. In the successive analysis, the three main exceptionalist arguments which are found in the discourse of the executive are presented and assigned to the internationalist ideal type of exceptionalism. Finally, the findings are contextualised with the puzzling nature of South Africa’s withdrawal from the RS, resulting in an exploration of discrepancies between self-understanding and reality and the conclusion that South African exceptionalism is increasingly curtailed by the arising domestic and international challenges that the government is facing.

2. Literature Review

To begin with, the following literature review engages critically with existing research on the case of South Africa’s withdrawal from the RS which has been studied by International Relations scholars using various FPA theories. Its main purpose is to inform this study’s theoretical and methodological choices which will essentially be based on the shortcomings of the existing literature. The body of research on the case is dominated by various rationalist perspectives which have highlighted the system-based origins of South Africa’s hegemonic

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interests on the one hand, and the government’s elitist interest in avoiding public scrutiny on the other hand. Departing from the rational choice logic, constructivist approaches have sought to understand leaders’ operational codes, norms, roles, and identities which were underlying to the decision-making process. This separation into system-based, rational choice, and constructivist approaches reflects the general debate in the field of FPA as to what factors on what levels can account for a particular decision-making outcome (Beach 2012:13).

Generally, FPA aims at understanding how states make foreign policy decisions, and how the underlying processes of decision-making matter in such processes. However, there is disagreement on where the key explanatory variables for such analyses are located. System-based theories have focused on preference formation on an international level in order to explain the broad trends in states’ foreign policy interests, while agent-based theories have sought to understand how decision-makers perceive and act upon the decision-making situation. Within the agent-based realm, there have been, on the one hand, rationalist theories such as the rational actor model which assume that decision-making strictly follows a logic of utility maximisation. On the other hand, constructivist theories have highlighted the shortcomings of rational thinking by pointing at cognitive and socio-psychological influences imposed on decision-makers through norms, roles and identities (Beach 2012:1-14).

Within this broader FPA debate, this thesis falls into line with the latter approaches, hence, the agent-based constructivist theories. The reasoning behind this choice will be elucidated throughout the following subsections which highlight the shortcomings of existing research. The theoretical approaches that have been used to make sense of South Africa’s withdrawal from the RS are presented in a systematic manner in order to point out the lack of plausibility of existing approaches, which creates transparency regarding the choice of theory used for this study. It is concluded that an agent-based constructivist approach is necessary, primarily due to the failure of existing literature to account for the defectiveness of the outcome. The section ends by introducing the theory of exceptionalism which will be used as an analytical framework for this study’s analysis.

2.1 South Africa’s National Interest of Regional Hegemony

Based on a rationalist logic, system-level theories have explained South Africa’s withdrawal from the RS by referring to the country’s national interest of regional hegemony which is assumed to represent the basis of its foreign policy decision-making. This interest involves the need to gain power over regional competitors, such as Nigeria, Egypt or Ethiopia (Mude

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2017:181), which is pursued by applying a soft power approach and multilateralism in order to clearly break from the brute foreign policy of the apartheid regime which had resulted in South Africa’s complete isolation (Hamill 2018; Isike and Ogunnubi 2017). From this perspective, multilateral organisations such as the AU or the ICC serve primarily as a means to an end for the implementation of the country’s national interest. Consequently, when the national interest was shifted towards gaining power on the African continent during Mbeki’s and Zuma’s presidencies, the foundations for a prioritisation of continental organisations over global multilateral institutions were laid. System-level theories argue that this led to the country’s withdrawal from the ICC, which had never been considered as an end in itself for idealistic goals of international justice, but had merely served as a tool which had proven to be ‘no longer useful’ to South Africa (Amao 2019:100; Boehme 2017:59; Hamill 2019:27).

Underlying to system-level explanations is the logic of utility maximisation by pursuing national interests which are determined by the international structure that a country finds itself in (Beach 2012:31). Therefore, in order to explain the withdrawal, they have described the potentially positive outcomes for South Africa in terms of maximising its influence on the continent. Such consequences include admiration from other AU countries or a bandwagon effect resulting in a mass withdrawal (Isike and Ogunnubi 2017:176,177). However, when taking into consideration that none of these expected effects actually occurred and even South Africa’s own withdrawal has remained ineffective until today, these predictions seem more puzzling than elucidating. Why did the gap between prediction and reality turn out to be so large? What lead to South Africa’s exorbitant expectations of exercising leadership on the continent when in reality, the country did not even manage to implement its initial decision to withdraw from the RS?

It was South Africa’s High Court which found the withdrawal notification to be unconstitutional based on a lack of public and parliamentary approval. In its ruling, the court asked what potentially could have been “so pressing for the national executive about the withdrawal from the Rome Statute which cannot wait for our [the High Court’s] legislative processes[...] to take their course?” (Kennedy 2017). In this context, the term executive stems from South Africa’s three-tier system of governance and refers to the branch of government which implements and administers public policies through various departments or ministries. In the following course of this thesis, the term executive is used in order to refer to the President, the Deputy President and the ministers (South African Government 2020). Overall, by referring to the obscure behaviour of the executive, the High Court suggests that an exclusively system-level explanation cannot account for the puzzling aspects of the case. This

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position has been shared by agent-based approaches which have shifted their focus away from system-level factors and towards the central decision-making unit, the executive, and how it perceived and acted upon the decision-making situation at hand.

2.2 Elitist Interests of the South African Executive

Applying an agent-based rationalist perspective, Boehme (2017) and Duplessis and Mettraux (2017) have shed light on the circumstances at the particular point in time when the executive decided to withdraw from the RS. They have argued that the withdrawal needs to be considered within the context of South Africa’s refusal to arrest and surrender to the ICC the Sudanese president al-Bashir during his visit for the 25th AU summit. Since the decision not to cooperate with the ICC on this matter clearly represented a breach of the RS, the executive was to face a hearing at the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court.

The prognosis for the hearing was poor and the executive was concerned to lose face before the court and the public which had a general interest in staying in the ICC as a means to hold its leaders accountable. Based on these concerns, withdrawing from the RS seemed like a wise decision which was implemented spontaneously, only two weeks before the hearing (Boehme 2017:16; Duplessis and Mettraux 2017:363). The executive’s avoidance of coming under public scrutiny fits well with explanations of utility maximisation, however, it is questionable whether a rational actor model-style approach (Beach 2012:98) can provide a sufficient explanation as to why the withdrawal turned out to be defective.

If the executive was so keen on avoiding public scrutiny, why did they not ensure that the withdrawal process would run smoothly? Instead, by skipping essential steps of public and parliamentary consultation which were legally necessary in order to withdraw, they gave the public even more reasons for criticism. Based on this puzzling order of events, this thesis argues that neither system-based nor rational actor models can account for the decision-making process behind South Africa’s withdrawal from the RS. It endorses the High Court’s position that the executive’s “unexplained haste[...] constitutes procedural irrationality” (Kennedy 2017) and draws the conclusion that a non-rationalist perspective is necessary in order to shed light on those factors that provoked an irrational decision. While referring to a variety of concepts and theories, the literature on non-rational factors is aggregated as constructivist literature, since their main commonality is the rejection of the rationalist assumption which takes interests, preferences and identities of actors as given (Chernoff 2005:20).

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2.3 Constructivist Approaches: Operational Codes, Norms and Roles

Departing from the logic of rational choice, constructivist approaches have sought to understand South Africa’s withdrawal from the ICC by analysing the underlying operational codes, norms, roles and identities which have shaped the country’s foreign policy behaviour. By using a constructivist theoretical foundation and interpretivist methods, their research purpose is to gain an in-depth understanding of influential factors on the decision-making process rather than providing explanations. Since constructivist theories and concepts tie into each other, this subsection discusses them in an aggregated manner.

To start with, constructivist FPA has paid attention to leaders’ operational codes which coin a country’s foreign policy behaviour (Beach 2012:105). According to Thakur (2018), this has strongly been the case for South Africa. When Mandela was in office as the first democratically elected president, South African foreign policy strongly reflected a commitment to human rights, exercising the role of a multilateral innovator and bridge-builder between the Global South and the Global North. Subsequently, under the presidents Mbeki and Zuma, the foreign policy directives of African Renaissance and solidarity became more dominant, resulting in a stronger orientation towards the Global South and African regional organisations in particular (Thakur 2018:78).

Consequently, South Africa prioritised its membership in the AU over its membership in the ICC, which led to a stronger internalisation of the AU’s norms and an increased willingness to cooperate with its directives. Regarding the ICC, South Africa’s initial strong commitment during Mandela’s presidency vanished as Mbeki took over, resulting in the country’s non-cooperation with the ICC, most prominently on the issue of al-Bashir. At least since then, South Africa’s foreign policy has signalised a strong commitment to Africa on the one hand, and its distancing from the ICC on the other hand. This effect was reinforced through the normative power of the multilateral organisations which South Africa had joined. Rejecting the rationalist assumption of a static national interest, constructivist perspectives have highlighted the ways in which South Africa’s interest and its membership in international organisations have been mutually constitutive. As part of this process, South Africa continuously (re)constructed its interests not only under different presidents, but also as a member in several multilateral organisations (Grant and Hamilton 2016:172).

At the time when the AU criticised the ICC for its neo-colonialism and ‘white justice’, South Africa had already formed strong ties with the organisation. When the AU adopted its official policy of non-cooperation with the court, South Africa followed suit, together with all other member states except Botswana. This group reaction can be understood as a ‘logic of

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appropriate behaviour’ phenomenon which showcases the power of deeply embedded norms in international organisations (Beach 2012:145,146). While this theoretical approach can account for the non-cooperation and the serious reconsideration of South Africa’s membership in the ICC, it does not provide a sufficient explanation for a national-level decision which the withdrawal from the RS represents.

In response to this outstanding issue, Vilmer (2016) continues to explore South Africa’s role in relation to the continent, highlighting its leadership on ICC matters from the very beginning of the court’s existence. South Africa had participated in the drafting of essential founding documents, it had refused to sign the United States’ impunity agreement, and it ultimately generated a contagion effect with 34 other African states who ratified the RS. When the AU called for non-cooperation with the ICC, a ‘silent bystander’ phenomenon occurred within the AU, with most members being willing to adapt and behave continentally acceptable (Vilmer 2016:1320,1326). Thus, the withdrawal can be understood as a repeated attempt of the executive to exercise leadership on the continent, whilst also demonstrating commitment to a common ‘African vision’ by following the AU’s demands.

Vilmer (2016) argues that in order to secure this leadership role, South Africa submitted its notification of withdrawal before Burundi which had taken concrete steps to leave the ICC three days earlier. Considering Burundi’s history of civil war, its failed attempts of establishing peace as well as the continued violation of human rights and violence in the country, its international reputation has been an altogether poor one. Thus, in order to avoid letting “Burundi, a small pariah state, be the first to make such a historic move” (Vilmer 2016:1327), South Africa had to withdraw as soon as possible. Incidentally, essential steps of parliamentary and public approval were skipped. This particular cue, not having been explored further beyond Vilmer’s shallow suggestion, has served as the basis for the considerations on the analytical framework for this thesis, as will be discussed further below.

Overall, constructivist approaches have added to structuralist and agent-based rationalist literature by highlighting the influence of normative and identity-related factors on the central decision-making unit. Their main strength has been an ontology and epistemology which allows the researcher to grasp the complexity of real-world decision-making, including factors that transcend a rationalist logic. However, while pointing at dynamics which potentially help understand the defectiveness of the decision to withdraw from the ICC, they have failed to analyse them more in-depth. This is essentially due to their usage of exclusively descriptive methods, which they have in common with rationalist literature on the case. Besides creating a serious lack of methodological variety and triangulation, the mere reliance on descriptive

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methods poses the risk of overly focusing on the peculiarities of the case, potentially resulting in claims of ‘false uniqueness’ (Halperin and Heath 2017:212). Therefore, this thesis seeks to contextualise the case of South Africa’s withdrawal into FPA scholarship by testing a theory which potentially shows parallels between South Africa’s and other countries’ foreign policy behaviour. Such practices contribute not only to the understanding of a particular case, but they also potentially reveal correlations for the establishment of new theories.

The choice of theory for this thesis was based on the cue mentioned by Vilmer (2016:1327), the only scholar who has suggested a plausible context in which the defective decision-making process emerged. His cue refers to what Isike and Ogunnubi (2017:174) call ‘exceptionalism’, an expression which they only mention once and which thus seems to function as a buzzword rather than an analytical term in their study. Essentially, it suggests that through its foreign policy behaviour, South Africa “portrays itself as an exceptional representative of the future prospects of the African continent” (2017:174). This coincides with Vilmer’s claim that the South African executive desperately needed to make sure South Africa would be the first country to make the historical move of leaving the ICC whilst applying an anti-imperialist rhetoric aimed at expressing commitment to the continent.

The proposition of exceptionalism represents an interesting starting point for this thesis as it poses questions about South Africa’s self-understanding which potentially helps understand the rushed nature of the decision of the executive. An exploration of the interdependence of the South African executive’s self-understanding and the country’s foreign policy behaviour can be undertaken by studying its foreign policy discourse. A suitable tool for studying comparative exceptionalist foreign policy discourses has been provided by Nymalm and Plagemann (2019), which is introduced in the following subsection.

2.4 Exceptionalism: Constructing a Superior Morality

Based on its function to inform and constitute foreign policy, exceptionalism is manifested as a particular foreign policy discourse which expresses and forges national identities. As an FPA theory, it has given insight into the foreign policy making of big players, most prominently the US (Lepgold and McKeown 1995). Only recently have scholars applied the theory in a comparative manner, studying contexts such as Turkey, China, India and Rwanda (Desrosiers and Swedlund 2019; Nymalm and Plagemann 2019; Yanık 2011; Zhang 2011). Underlying to Nymalm and Plagemann’s (2019) conceptualisation of comparative exceptionalism is an understanding of foreign policy discourse “as a set of rules, structure, or

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frame of intelligibility that is both constraining and enabling in that it makes certain courses of action necessary, desirable, and possible and others unacceptable or inconceivable” (Nymalm and Plagemann 2019:14), thus resulting in states’ engagement in some particular external actions and not in others. Exceptionalist discourses include linguistic and non-linguistic elements as contributors to the construction of an identity as a foreign policy actor (Nymalm and Plagemann 2019:14).

Essentially, exceptionalism is based on the idea of uniqueness entailing moral superiority over all other societies, whilst at the same time embracing the concept of universality and the pursuit of an allegedly universal common good. These characteristics are discursively justified in relation to a particular civilisational or spiritual heritage, political history, or geographical location. Assuming their own exemption from other societies’ ignorance, exceptionalist states take the view that the universal good of the global community is dependent on them. It is crucial to understand that the theory does not seek to identify whether a country is truly exceptional. Rather, it points out the country’s self-understanding and its expression through and constitution by discourse. Instead of being directed at foreign audiences, exceptionalist discourses are primarily expressed internally within a nation in order to establish a common sense of their ‘being’ as a foreign policy actor. Thus, besides representing a foreign policy discourse, exceptionalism also constitutes a particular identity discourse (Nymalm and Plagemann 2019:14-17).

In order to specify the ways in which the conviction of moral superiority is manifested in several forms of exceptionalism, Nymalm and Plageman (2019) present an ideal type methodology which provides a point of entry for understanding particular cases. The ideal types are distinguished based on two dimensions. Firstly, they may set out a call for an either missionary or exemplary foreign policy, which relates to whether the exceptionalist country feels a duty to proselytise and convert others, or whether it presents its superiority merely by framing itself as an example. Secondly, exceptionalism may either be exemptionalist or non-exemptionalist, with the latter implying adherence to international law, international cooperation and multilateralism as well as a conflict-mediating role in international politics as opposed to the country’s exemption from liability towards the international community (Nymalm and Plagemann 2019:18). Based on these two dimensions, four ideal types are outlined below. For the sake of clarity, historical examples have been added which illustrate the ways in which the different exceptionalist self-understandings influence foreign policy making. These empirical examples should not be understood as accurate reflections of those ideal types, but rather as cases which have showcased many of the characteristics of one type.

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The theory of exceptionalism has not yet been applied to the South African context, however combining the two represents an interesting framework for this thesis. Constructivist scholarly literature has already highlighted South Africa’s struggle between its identity as a truly African country which focuses its foreign policy efforts on the continent, and its identity as an exceptional representative of the continent which acts as a bridge-builder between the Global South and the North (Isike and Ogunnubi 2017:177). Similarly, Thakur (2018) has pointed out the way in which the country’s foreign policy is essentially caught between the two stools of ‘South African exceptionalism’ versus ‘just another country’ (2018:73).

It is particularly this coexistence of universality and particularity and their constitution of a superior morality which the theory of exceptionalism seeks to grasp. As an agency-based and ideational theory, it considers individuals’ perceptions and behaviours, including a country’s self-understanding, to be influential in decision-making, and foreign policy discourse to be productive of and simultaneously produced by this identity (Beach 2012). By using exceptionalism as a framework, this thesis contributes to the existing debate on South Africa’s withdrawal from the RS by focusing on the central decision-making unit, the executive, and how this small group perceived itself and other actors during the decision-making.

This thesis argues that especially in a South African context, exceptionalism needs to be distinguished from other types of foreign policy discourses, such as nationalism. Nymalm and Plagemann (2019) emphasise that while nationalist discourses tend to be purely particularistic and exclusive by defining superiority in ethnic or cultural terms, exceptionalism refers to a morality which all humankind should abide by (Nymalm and Plagemann 2019:15). Furthermore, when conducting research in a South African context, it needs to be understood that there is no such thing as a homogeneous national identity that includes all citizens. During apartheid, the country’s population was separated both ideationally and spatially according to the variables of race, ethnicity and language, which has had long-standing consequences for the identity of South Africans even after the country’s transition into a

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democracy (Ramutsindela 1997). South Africa’s first democratically elected government considered nation-building as its primary task, which has continued to be a priority of the South African executive until today. The country’s current National Development Plan strongly emphasises nation-building as a building block for its development (National Planning Commission 2012). Taking this background into consideration, the exceptionalist foreign policy discourse of the South African executive needs to be seen in relation to the larger project of nation-building, a conscious effort of forging an identity by the government.

All in all, the proposition to be tested in this thesis is whether an exceptionalist self-understanding is present in South African foreign policy discourses. This task involves an exploration of how particularist and universalist arguments are instrumental in the discursive construction of a superior morality which shapes the country’s self-understanding as a foreign policy actor. If the discourse of the South African executive is indeed exceptionalist, the withdrawal from the RS can be interpreted as a non-linguistic element of this very discourse. In this case, a study of South Africa’s ideal type is necessary in order to get a deeper understanding of its exceptionalist thinking. Based on this analysis, a context is provided in which we can make sense of the puzzling nature of South Africa’s withdrawal from the RS. The following section on methodology discusses the ways in which the analytical tool of exceptionalism can be translated into a suitable method to be used in the analysis section.

3. Methodology

Based on the strengths and weaknesses of the reviewed literature and the analytical tool of exceptionalism, the methodology section deals with the issue of how scientific knowledge can be produced that responds to the research question “How can South Africa’s ineffective

withdrawal from the Rome Statute be understood in relation to its exceptionalist self-understanding?”. As part of an overarching self-reflexive practice, it critically takes the

researcher’s choices and biases into consideration by questioning the ways in which they influence the study’s findings.

Having located this study’s ontological and epistemological focus in the realms of interpretivism and reflexivity, the choice of method is justified by relating back to the shortcomings of existing descriptive research. The need for a transparent and systematic approach has inspired this study’s choice of qualitative content analysis (QCA) as a method. Furthermore, the criteria for selecting data are laid out, based on which eight public speeches of the South African executive have been selected. After further discussing the material’s

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strengths and shortcomings, an empirically-derived coding scheme is presented which serves as a basis for the subsequent analysis.

3.1 Ontological and Epistemological Foundations

In order to develop a suitable method for the purpose of this thesis, some methodological considerations need to be made in advance, including a discussion of ontology and epistemology which are at the core of any social scientific undertaking. The ontological focus of this thesis is laid on social phenomena, their intersubjective meanings and the ways in which the latter are socially and discursively constructed. By paying attention to ideas, meanings and beliefs, it rejects the positivist idea of a single knowable and objective reality (Halperin and Heath 2017:41).

This thesis particularly explores the role of self-perceived identities as cognitive and socio-psychological influences on decision-making processes and therefore, it does not adhere to the neopositivist principle of studying only observable facts (Kaarbo 2015:200). The object of study, South Africa’s exceptionalist self-understanding, is not an explicit nor conscious element in foreign policy discourses. In contrast, it is a naturalised and hidden phenomenon which requires detailed interpretation in order to be revealed (Nymalm and Plagemann 2019:16). Thus, an interpretivist study is necessary for the purpose of this study.

Assuming that the social world fundamentally differs from the natural world, interpretivism posits that an understanding of human behaviour can only be achieved by studying the meanings, beliefs and ideas given by people to their actions. This paper’s methodology therefore carries a hermeneutic purpose which aims at understanding human behaviour by treating it as a ‘text’ which can be interpreted (Halperin and Heath 2017:41). Furthermore, it can be classified into the realms of reflexivity, assuming transfactualism and a mind-world-monism which presupposes that the researcher is part of the world, and his concepts and theories are productive of the world (Jackson 2011:39-41). From this perspective, this thesis follows an analytical rather than explanatory purpose, assuming that the empirical world is complex and context-specific (Beach 2012:9).

The focus on differences across social, cultural and historical settings is inherent to interpretivist approaches which consider “human activities, actions, and social formations as unique historical expressions of human meaning and intention” (Halperin and Heath, 2017:43). As a result, they present detailed interpretive analyses of agents, their environment, their values and goals, the choices they perceive and how they interpret other agents’ actions

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(Halperin and Heath 2017:43). Related to this thesis, this includes the South African executive, its overarching foreign policy priorities, its perceived choice situation during the time of the withdrawal and its interpretation of Burundi’s pending withdrawal which are all factors that can potentially help make sense of the case.

Based on these epistemological and ontological considerations, this thesis contributes to the literature by producing knowledge which is more in-depth than parsimonious structuralist explanations, whilst also avoiding mere descriptions of the case’s peculiarities which have been presented enough in rational choice and constructivist approaches. Another weakness of the existing literature on the case has been their intransparency about the methods which have been used or may potentially be relevant in future research. Thus, the following subsection will pay close attention to the critical discussion of the method used in this thesis.

3.2 Qualitative Content Analysis as a Systematic Hermeneutic Method

Responding to the need of a systematic and deeply analytical method for the purpose of this thesis, QCA was chosen for the purpose of conducting a study on South African exceptionalism. Generally speaking, as a form of textual analysis, content analysis generates data by analysing and interpreting different kinds of texts (Halperin and Heath 2017:160). In contrast to quantitative forms content analysis, QCA pays special attention to latent content by exposing the underlying meanings, motives, and purpose of the text produced by a certain actor. It balances between methodological explicitness on the one hand and retaining flexibility with regards to coding categories on the other hand (Breuning 2011:490,491).

Rejecting the free and impressionistic nature of most hermeneutic methods, QCA is a methodologically systematic approach which follows clear rules in order to ensure validity and replicability. Thereby, its analysis is guided by a clear link to theoretical considerations in order to make valid inferences about the underlying meanings of social interactions (Mayring 2015:12,13). At the same time, QCA opposes purely ‘methodologist’ approaches which blindly apply a certain set of methods for their own sake without remaining grounded to the material (Schneider 2013). All in all, QCA seeks to avoid both the superficial character of quantitative analyses and the subjectivity of ‘unconscious’ methods often associated with discourse analysis (Rose 2007:61).

Mayring (2015) argues that QCA pursues various purposes, which, related to this paper, consist of the deepening of an existing hunch which has not yet been clearly defined or studied, and of the testing of the plausibility of this proposition (2015:22-25). This study

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seeks to attain a deeper understanding of identity-related influences on South Africa’s foreign policy behavior at the time of the withdrawal from the RS, which has remained puzzling due to its defective outcome. Furthermore, the proposition of an underlying exceptionalist self-understanding of the South African executive shall be tested in terms of its plausibility by assessing the occurrence of exceptionalist discourse in various public speeches. Overall, by grasping selective and latent aspect of meaning, the method of QCA is best suited for an analysis of the ways in which foreign policy discourses of the South African executive produce and are produced by an underlying exceptionalist self-understanding.

Generally, methods of textual analysis have certain advantages over other methods of data collection as well as over quantitative methods. Firstly, textual analysis is a particularly unobtrusive method as it does not rely on cooperative attitudes of the subjects. This is especially favourable for the study of decision-makers’ behaviours, which is also the case for this paper’s empirical focus. Secondly, the method prevents its subjects from altering their behaviours due to their awareness of being observed (Breuning 2011:491). This effect represents a challenge for most primary data collection methods, such as surveying, interviewing or field observation, where subjects’ behaviours tend to be distorted due to their attempt to display ‘socially desirable’ actions (Halperin and Heath 2017:297). Thirdly, the method of QCA makes it possible to extract inter-subjective meanings whilst minimizing subjectivity by adhering to a framework of coding categories. Finally, QCA is able to identify nuances in meanings as well as absences, which quantitative methods are unable to grasp (Breuning 2011:492).

The thesis shall use strategies in order to deal with the method’s limitations related to its reflective nature which strongly involves the researcher in the process of producing meaning. One relevant phenomenon of this sort is the confirmation bias of the researcher’s presumptions. Interpretive methods carry a higher risk of directing the researcher’s attention towards evidence that confirms its own argument, ignoring disconfirming content (Halperin and Heath 2017:256). This effect can be minimised by consciously looking for disconfirming evidence and reporting it as well as thoroughly reflecting on outliers (Rose 2007:169).

Secondly, the interpretive nature of the chosen method results in a low external validity and difficulties regarding the replication of the study and regarding the generalisation of its results. It is therefore necessary to be modest about the scope of one’s findings, as well as communicating transparently about one’s own choices made during the coding process (Rose 2007:169). Especially when conducting a single-case study, the dangers of ‘false universalism’ and ‘false uniqueness’ come to the fore (Halperin and Heath 2017:212). The

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researcher thus needs to be critical of biases and the own choices made in order to avoid exorbitant claims of universal truth and generalisation on the one hand, and uniqueness and exceptionality on the other hand. This self-reflexive practice does not end with considerations on the selected method, but it will be carried further to the various issues regarding data selection and the coding process.

3.3 Data Selection: Minimising the Researcher’s Bias

In order to be able to make valid inferences about the research question, the choice of data is of high importance to the research proess. This thesis seeks to discover the exceptionalist self-understanding of the South African executive as well as studying the ways in which this identity is discursively constructed in order to understand the country’s withdrawal from the RS in 2016. Therefore, it is reasonable to analyse speeches by members of the executive at that point in time. This includes the former South African president Jacob Zuma as well as the two foreign ministers who worked for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) during his presidency, namely, Ms Nkoana-Mashabane and Ms Sisulu.

For the purpose of guaranteeing the relevance of the chosen data for answering the research question whilst simultaneously minimising the tendency of the researcher’s confirmation bias, objective selection criteria were established based on which speeches were in- or excluded. The two selection criteria deployed in the data selection process of this thesis relate to the audience as well as the purpose of the speech. Firstly, as has been mentioned above, exceptionalist discourses are conveyed primarily in domestic contexts, not towards an international audience (Nymalm and Plagemann 2019:29). What this thesis seeks to grasp is the exceptionalist background against which the government’s efforts of forging an identity for the nation are pursued. This phenomenon needs to be considered separately from the country’s efforts to polish its international image. Thus, in order to test whether exceptionalism is a present phenomenon in South African foreign policy discourses, it is crucial to look at speeches directed at a South African audience.

The second criterion relates to the purpose of the speech, which shall be the exposition of South Africa’s common self-understanding as a nation, or more specifically, as an actor in the realms of foreign policy. As mentioned by Nymalm and Plagemann (2019), “exceptionalist discourses are part of a society’s debates around its identity as a nation” (2019:29), thus, the selected speeches shall put forward a certain type of South African identity. The relevance of a certain piece of data for this thesis is established once a speech puts forward a blueprint of

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what it means to be South African by referring to the country’s particularities and universalities unlike other nations, especially in terms of its foreign policy. Based on the two criteria laid out above, the list of public speeches on the government’s ministry of foreign affairs website was worked through.

As a result, a total of eight speeches were selected, covering the time frame from 2014 to 2019, which are outlined in the table below. Given the varying character of the speeches, their temporal distribution as well as their different authors, the internal validity of this study is increased if common phenomena are found to occur across the different settings. According to Rose (2007), once key themes and their interconnections appear in different texts independent from each other, their meaning gets more significant and the validity of the findings increases (2007:150,157).

The presidential addresses which were chosen took place on South Africa’s celebration ceremony of 20 years of freedom and democracy in 2014, on Human Rights day in 2014 and on Freedom day in 2015. All of the speeches are directed at the entire South African

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community, which president Zuma clearly demonstrates by occasionally switching into local languages such as Zulu, Xhosa and Southern Sotho. The occasions on which he speaks offer an appropriate context in which a celebration of South African identity in relation to its historical and contemporary particularities can be expected. As such, they represent a suitable set of data for this paper’s analysis which seeks to grasp the essence of the South African self-understanding.

Of no less potential for the purpose of this thesis are the two public lectures given by foreign minister Nkoana-Mashabane at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 2014 and at the North West University in Potchefstroom in 2016. The aim of her lectures is to enthuse and inspire the country’s young population for South African foreign policy and its historical roots. In terms of their audience, Nkoana-Mashabane’s speeches are directed at a more exclusive group of students which is representative of the young generation of the educated middle-class. In this manner, they provide an interesting supplement to President Zuma’s addresses which speak to all social strata.

Finally, the speeches selected of minister Sisulu were held at the Budget Vote debates 2018 and at the State of the Nation Address debates in 2019. As they took place in a parliamentary setting, they primarily relate to an audience of a small elite of government officials, however, they were also publicised. The debates are intended to update the parliament and the public about the different departments’ activities, priorities and budgetary issues. Therefore, as the representative of the ministry of foreign affairs, Sisulu gives an overview of South Africa’s foreign policy priorities. These accounts provide an interesting inside perspective on the main priorities in the country’s foreign affairs as well as giving information on the self-perception of the South African executive regarding those matters.

The selected data can be criticised based on its tendency of being biased towards the governing party ANC (African National Congress) and the policies it has pursued. Therefore, it can be expected that a distorted self-understanding will be presented in the government officials’ speeches. However, as has been discussed above, the purpose of this thesis is not to find out whether a country is factually exceptional, but to explore the ways in which its own identity is framed as exceptionalist. In this respect, biased sources can give valuable insights into ongoing processes of identity formation initiated by the government.

Furthermore, while the heterogeneous data set brings about a relatively high internal validity, it faces limitations when it comes to generalising its findings beyond the time frame observed in this thesis, which is a common problem in qualitative single-N research. Therefore, this thesis does not set any unrealistic goals of producing law-like explanations,

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but it aims at understanding more deeply how certain arguments of moral superiority are produced by the South African executive. This analysis does include considerations of how such arguments fit into the country’s wider social practices, however it remains critical of universalising these findings far beyond (Schneider 2013). Overall, despite its limitations regarding external validity, conducting a qualitative analysis is an appropriate starting point for an exploration of the defective decision-making which has not yet been explored much in existing research.

3.4 Establishing an Empirically-derived Coding Scheme

In order to optimise replicability and internal validity, the analysis of South Africa’s self-understanding in a foreign policy context will be based on a coding scheme which is adjusted according to the research question (Mayring 2015:13). When conducting a QCA, the main purpose of the coding scheme is to establish a clear operationalisation of the analytical tool. In order to make valid inferences, the coding categories need to be theoretically justified and represent the full scope of the research question (Breuning 2011:193). A conceptual definition of exceptionalism has been provided above based on Nymalm and Plageman’s (2019) study which has, on the one hand, emphasised the coexistence of the two pillars of particularity and universality which combine to construct a superior morality, and on the other hand, it has outlined four ideal types of exceptionalism.

This study’s coding scheme consists of two inquiries, the first relating to the ways in which a self-understanding of being morally superior is discursively constructed, and the second seeking to classify the country’s exceptionalist discourse into an ideal type. In other words, the former identifies particularist and universalist arguments with a particular focus on historical, political and socio-cultural peculiarities on the one hand and Africanist, internationalist and paternalist universal values on the other hand. The latter inquiry investigates the occurrence of exemplary, missionary, exemptionalist and non-exemptionalist characteristics in the foreign policy discourse of the South African executive in order to determine what ideal type comes closest to the country’s profile. This two-step inquiry is necessary in order to get a fuller understanding of the underlying logic which guides the executive’s discursive engagement in foreign policy issues as well as their policy actions, with a particular focus on the withdrawal from the RS.

Based on this essentially theory-driven structure, provisional coding categories were established and filled with concrete, potentially occurring themes that were extracted from

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secondary literature on South African foreign policy. While increasingly engaging with the material, these provisional categories and themes underwent changes as new issues and themes arose from the data (Rose 2007:161). Consequently, while some categories were broken down into more specific sub-categories, various new themes were added to the scheme according to the discourses analysed. Other categories, such as the ‘missionary’ and ‘exemptionalist’ subcategories of the ideal type inquiry, were excluded since the data did not provide any concrete manifestations thereof. This process of categories evolving from initial theoretical considerations into an empirically-derived operational list is called evolutionary coding (Mayring 2002:120). When applying a partly data-driven approach, the researcher needs to be aware of the main weakness of the method, which is its subjectivity. However, if the coding categories are meant to provide a valid description of the materials analysed, the high involvement of the researcher in the process is inevitable (Schreier 2014:171).

Regarding the coding units, this thesis has chosen to conduct theme coding which includes words, phrases and sentences that relate to the themes outlined in the scheme below. This choice was made in order to grasp frequently mentioned names and buzzwords such as ‘Mandela’ or ‘Ubuntu’ which were found to be prominent in the discourses studied. However, themes do not occur within a vacuum, but they intersect, overlap and compose larger arguments. Thus, in addition, theme coding also allows in-depth explorations of complex interconnections of themes such as ‘heritage and transformation’ or ‘living legacy’, which both consist of various historical and political particularist themes. Their concrete interplay will be discussed in the analysis section which outlines the most prominent arguments of moral superiority raised by the South African executive.

In order to enable the categorisation of one discursive statement into various themes simultaneously, this thesis has chosen to use the coding software NVivo12 which enables the researcher to grasp overlaps and the ways in which the discourse operates within the larger structure of the sentence and the text (Schneider 2013). NVivo12 is a data analysis software that can be utilised to organise and code data whilst also providing helpful tools such as the function ‘coding stripes’ which helps discover overlaps and patterns in the material. It has also been practical for conducting trials with the changing coding scheme, since the speeches could easily be recoded several times. An excerpt of the coded data embedded in the software has been added to the appendices at the end of this thesis.

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4. Analysis

Built upon the theoretical and methodological considerations made in the previous sections, the analysis was conducted. By applying the framework of exceptionalism through a QCA, it deeply engaged with the research question “How can South Africa’s ineffective withdrawal

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Central to the first part of the analysis section is the exploration of the latter part of the question, hence, the way in which an exceptionalist self-understanding of being morally superior is discursively constructed through particularist and universalist claims. However, the larger purpose of the analysis is to set South Africa’s withdrawal from the RS into a context that helps to make sense of the defective decision-making by pointing at the executive’s self-understanding. This endeavor relates to the first part of the research question which seeks to understand the puzzling and seemingly irrational behavior of the executive.

The overall structure of the analysis section consists of a presentation of exceptionalist arguments of moral superiority, in fact, two particularist and one universalist argument, which is followed by an elucidation of what ideal type South African exceptionalism corresponds to. The last subsection discusses how the withdrawal from the RS can be set into the context of South Africa’s internationalist exceptionalism which is based on a self-understanding as a ‘moral compass’ in global politics.

4.1 Discursive Construction of a Superior Morality

As a first step of the analysis, it will be investigated how the discourse of the South African executive contributes to the construction of a superior morality as part of the government’s nation-building project by applying particularist and universalist reasoning. The following paragraphs depict the most prominent arguments in the foreign policy discourse of the executive which consist of overlapping and intersecting themes of various categories. Instead of presenting the findings strictly sorted by category, this thesis has chosen to reflect the interwoven nature of the various themes which are dominant in the discourse. This can only be achieved by carefully studying their interplay as components of larger arguments which claim moral superiority over all other societies.

Such claims include the apartheid inheritance and transformation thanks to the ANC; the living legacy of national heroes; and South Africa’s allegedly universal ‘Vision for a better Africa and a better world’. Thereby, the first two arguments consist mainly of historically and politically particularist themes, while the latter makes use of Africanist, internationalist and paternalist themes which all belong to the universalist strand. Overall, the combined presence of particularist and universalist discourses can be interpreted as a confirmation of the central proposition of this thesis, hence, the existence of an exceptionalist self-understanding of the South African executive which played a role in the decision-making process behind the withdrawal from the RS.

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4.1.1 Apartheid Inheritance and Transformation through the ANC

During the process of coding the data, one combination of themes stood out throughout the speeches analysed, which can be summarised as ‘legacy and transformation’. It consists of intersecting historical and political themes which all have to do with the aftermath of apartheid and how it has been successfully responded to. While this theme combination is outstandingly employed in President Zuma’s speeches, it also finds use in the ministers’ speeches. Zuma makes frequent reference to the bad socio-economic state in which South Africa found itself in 1994 in order to point out the significant transformation which the country has experienced ever since. As a means to visualize this success, he uses words which relate to the themes ‘inheritance’ and ‘legacy’ (DIRCO 2014a; 2014b; 2014c) in connection with the theme ‘transformation’ (DIRCO 2014a; 2014c; 2018a). Such a choice of imagery reinforces the impression of an immutable presence of undesired remnants of apartheid which have presented a serious challenge to the country’s development. This makes the societal transformation all the more laudable, which Zuma expresses by stating that “[d]espite this legacy, we have recorded progress in socio-economic transformation” (DIRCO 2014a).

By coalescing the two themes ‘legacy’ and ‘transformation’ into the argument of ‘transformation despite legacy’, South Africa is depicted as a country which faces unique challenges and which has been incomparably successful in mastering them. It has changed “from being the skunk of the world to a non-racial, non-sexist, thriving and vibrant constitutional democracy” (DIRCO 2014a) which “demonstrate[s] to the world that a new nation can rise from the ashes of racial intolerance” (DIRCO 2015). In order to reinforce this argument, it is repeatedly mentioned that today, South Africa is a better place to live in than it was before 1994 (DIRCO 2014b; 2014c; 2015). This line of reasoning is taken further as a basis for justifying for the problems that the South African society is still facing until today. Such problems include general setbacks in socio-economic development, shortcomings in the areas of education and the population’s high propensity to use violence (DIRCO 2014a; 2014b; 2015) which are referred to as “massive backlogs” (DIRCO 2014b), “results from years of apartheid dehumanisation” (DIRCO 2015) and general “apartheid damage” (DIRCO 2014a).

What is expressed as ‘legacy and transformation’ by President Zuma finds a slightly altered expression in the ministers’ discourses. They speak of South Africa’s ‘inherited suffering’ which is responded to by the new government’s path of ‘rehabilitation’ – a tedious process of ‘healing’ which has been largely successful, though not in all areas of socio-economic development (DIRCO 2014c; 2019). When it comes to explaining how the

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transformational success or the rehabilitation was achieved, the hard work of the population and of the government is pointed out by President Zuma and the foreign ministers. In this context, it is striking that no clear line is drawn between the ANC and the South African population as a whole. It also remains unclear whether references to the ANC are meant to relate to the ANC in its form of a liberation movement or as South Africa’s governing party. In president Zuma’s speech, the subjects of achieving progress have been “South Africans working together” (DIRCO 2014a) – “we” who have “worked hard together to promote human rights”, who have “lost our compatriots to the brutal system of apartheid” (DIRCO 2014b) and who have “pull[ed] our country back from the brink of disaster”(DIRCO 2014a). Overall, his speech seems inclusive of the whole population, which he suggests by finally inviting his full audience to “work[...] together as all South Africans” (DIRCO 2014b).

By contrast, the ministers’ speeches clearly utilise the pronoun “we” in reference to the ANC-led government, thus accrediting the transformational success to this particular group. Nkoana-Mashabane states that “we stand proud for we have attained many of the promises we have made to our people over the years[...]. Indeed, we have come a long way in addressing injustice, inequality and poverty” (DIRCO 2014c). Sisulu claims that the country’s progress essentially came about “through the leadership of the ANC” and that “the ANC government [...] has rescued this country from the debilitating albatrosses of sanctions, sports and cultural isolations and the undesirable position of being a pariah state” (DIRCO 2019). Furthermore, she refers to the events leading up to 1994 as a “miracle” (DIRCO 2018a) in order to suggest the ANC’s divine abilities, or at least their favourable position of receiving a miracle. The outstanding and virtually divine role played by the ANC is made indisputable by referring to Mandela who “was unambiguous about the fact that the ANC has always been the organization best placed to unite the broadest cross-section of South Africans” (14NM).

Overall, the argument of ‘inheritance and transformation’ points out the bad socio-economic state in which South Africa found itself in after apartheid, as well as highlighting the extraordinary way in which substantial transformation was achieved in the country. The credit for this success is given to South Africans, the ANC as a liberation movement and most importantly, as the uncontested governing party since the beginning of South African democracy. By emphasising the uniqueness and supernaturality of their history, the South African executive clearly employs an exceptionalist argument of moral superiority.

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4.1.2 Living Legacy of National Heroes

Another striking argument in the foreign policy discourse of the South African executive is the perceived moral superiority due to the country’s claimed adherence to the original principles of the liberation movement. President Zuma states that Mandela and Tambo, two key persons of the liberation movement, “ha[ve] not died because the ideals of freedom, human dignity and a colour-blind respect for every individual cannot perish[...]. [T]he ideals […] will live forever” (DIRCO 2015). The legacy of national heroes is proudly presented in all the speeches analysed and is expressed through a combination of historically, politically and culturally particularist themes. The names of renowned leaders of the liberation movement, most prominently Nelson Mandela and O.R. Tambo, appear in each of the speeches analysed. They are frequently quoted as a source of inspiration for South Africa’s foreign policy making (DIRCO 2014c; 2016), and one of Zuma’s speeches is even explicitly dedicated to Mandela (DIRCO 2014a). Furthermore, cultural particularism is expressed by mentioning symbols and customs which were essentially shaped by the leaders of the liberation movement, such as the idea of South Africa as a ‘rainbow nation’ which “belongs to all who live in it” (DIRCO 2014a; 2015) as well as the flag and the national anthem which carry high symbolic value for the new South Africa (DIRCO 2014c).

Throughout the discourse of the foreign ministers, much emphasis is laid on the embeddedness of Mandela’s core principles in South Africa’s constitution. According to Sisulu, the country’s foreign policy guidelines were remodeled according to the constitution in order to “fulfil the wishes of Nelson Mandela and many heroes and heroines” (DIRCO 2019). She claims that the foundations of South Africa’s historical and contemporary foreign policy have been “crafted” and “sensitised” by O.R. Tambo and “crystallised and given expression by Nelson Mandela” (DIRCO 2018a). Despite the constantly changing global political system, South Africa’s foreign policy is said to “never lose the central thrust of peace, human rights and equality” – in other words, it is strongly committed to ideas which stem from their national heroes’ body of thought (DIRCO 2018a).

It is furthermore argued that South African foreign policy making resonates with the national heroes’ ideals not only on paper, but also in practice. According to Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa has “utilised foreign policy to contribute towards Madiba’s [Mandela’s] vision of creating a better life for all” (DIRCO 2016). This vision has primarily been realised by assisting fellow African states in the area of conflict resolution through dialogue (DIRCO 2016; 2018a; 2018b). The frequent exercising of a mediating role is even considered to be a ‘hallmark’ (18S1) of South African foreign policy. Furthermore, the

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country’s dedication to justice and equality in several areas is pointed out. South Africa has been a key global advocate for the matters of gender equality, the fight against racism, xenophobia and related intolerant ideologies (DIRCO 2018b) and it arguably has “not held back when [...] confronted with what we regarded as gross abuse of human rights” (DIRCO 2018b). The country takes pride in having hosted a variety of political and cultural events of global relevance, including the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties, the 2010 FIFA world cup – “the first on African soil and the most successful” (DIRCO 2014c) – and the UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (DIRCO 2018a).

Based on South Africa’s political and historical peculiarities which are expressed in executive’s discourse, it is concluded that South Africa’s “potential to influence for good is enormous” (DIRCO 2018a). The prospect is given that the country will continue on the peaceful path of foreign policy which is inspired by the ANC’s founding values. To conclude, South Africa’s superior morality is substantiated by claiming the country’s strict adherence to the principles of the ‘moral mission’ of the liberation movement. Since South Africa’s foreign policy making is said to be based on the ANC’s founding values on paper and in practice, the executive frames its foreign policy decisions as inherently good. Due to its history which is unique to the continent and the world, it is claimed that South Africa has access to a superior morality which other countries are exempt from. The assumed relatedness to a higher order revelation or spirituality (Nymalm and Plagemann 2019:14) leads to South Africa’s exceptionalist self-understanding of being the “moral compass of the world” (DIRCO 2018a). 4.1.3 South Africa’s Universal ‘Vision of a Better Africa and a Better World’

Besides its dominant particularist arguments, the South African executive employs universalist reasoning in order to reinforce its exceptionalist self-image. Universalism reinforces the impression that the exceptionalist country can access moral wisdom which is used to pursue an allegedly common good (Nymalm and Plagemann 2019:14). Such reasoning is evident in Nkoana-Mashabane’s statement that the spirit of South Africa’s foreign policy is rooted not only in national interest, but equally in Pan-Africanism and internationalism (DIRCO 2014c). She claims that South Africa has “utilised foreign policy to contribute towards Madiba’s vision of creating a better life for all” (DIRCO 2016). One reason given for this altruistic attitude is that since South Africa has “suffered so much, [it] can ill afford suffering in any part of the world” (DIRCO 2018a). Furthermore, the executive expresses their thankfulness for the solidarity South Africa received from the international

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community during its own struggles (DIRCO 2015; 2016; 2018b) and wants to reciprocate this support by following the principle of Ubuntu, which means “creat[ing] a better future for us all” (DIRCO 2014c; 2015).

The vision of creating a better world for all finds expression in South Africa’s proud assurance of solidarity with the oppressed people of the world. Both Nkoana-Mashabane and Sisulu repeatedly pledge South Africa’s support of Palestine and Western Sahara in their struggle for their right for self-determination (DIRCO 2014c; 2018b; 2019). Furthermore, South Africa offers its support to its “brothers and sisters in some parts of North Africa [who] are yet to fully recover from the painful process of the democratisation” (DIRCO 2014c) as well as to Sri Lanka which is in the process of reconciliation (DIRCO 2014c). On a larger level, the ministers criticise the global governance system for oppressing the Global South, notably the UN Security Council whose “current formation is unfair to developing and small states and disenfranchises the majority of the Member States” (DIRCO 2014c). Through its active membership in the Non-Aligned Movement, the G-77 plus China, the IBSA and BRICS, South Africa’s vision is to recast current structures “towards an inclusive international order whose focus is on the empowerment of poor, underdeveloped and developing countries” (DIRCO 2019).

While the Global South plays a major role in South African foreign policy discourses, the significance of the African continent remains uncontested. In the ministers’ speeches, it is frequently emphasised that Africa is at the centre of South Africa’s foreign policy (DIRCO 2014c; 2016; 2018b; 2019) which is said to be guided by the principles of African Renaissance and Ubuntu (DIRCO 2014c; 2016; 2015). The adherence to Pan-Africanist principles demonstrates South Africa’s truly African identity, including the belief in a common African destiny (DIRCO 2014c; 2015) which involves that “South Africa’s future is inextricably linked to the future of our continent” (DIRCO 2016). The country’s strong identification with the continent is made evident in Nkoana-Mashabane’s statement that South Africa’s “definition of patriotism goes beyond the love of South Africa and takes into cognisance the aspirations and the needs of Africans” and that its national interests “are also defined in consideration of the aspirations of the general African populace” (DIRCO 2016).

It is furthermore striking how hopeful the discourse of the foreign ministers proves to be throughout the speeches analysed. For instance, Nkoana-Mashabane states that “Our continent, Africa, is definitely on the rise! [...] Africa is taking charge of writing its own narrative” (DIRCO 2014c). In a similar vein, Sisulu describes the African continent as “flexing its muscles and itching to reach new heights in its development and advancement”

Exploring Exceptionalism in Foreign Policy Discourses: How can we understand South Africa’s unconstitutional and ineffective withdrawal from the Rome Statute?