ABSTRACT

The significant changes requiring adjustments in South Africa's regional buffer arrangements came in the mid-1960s with Britain's voluntary and involuntary withdrawal from southern Africa. The South African buffer state system of the 1980s is at variance from more conventional buffer systems - as it was in its earlier form in the 1960s. South Africa's reconstructed buffer system of the 1980s seems to hold promise in the short run as a means for South Africa to continue to protect its sociopolitical order and its position as the preeminent regional power surrounded by acordon sanitaire. Diplomatic relations were accompanied by South African financial aid permitting the construction of a new capital in central Malawi and by expanded bilateral trade. South Africa's quest for an adequate buffer system has been animated by its growing fears of the potential vulnerability of its system of white-minority rule.