ABSTRACT
It is possible to trace how grand foreign policy aims like US 'downgrading' and South African 're-engagement' in the obsolescence period at the start of the 1990s are related, conceivably, to 'economic liberalism' in the coalescence period near the end of the decade. Whereas initially there had been accolades from abroad for South African foreign policy, strapped for resources and stretched by seemingly endless demands, South African foreign policy makers came to be criticised as 'incoherent' and 'lacking in direction'. The obsolescence period in the comparable evolution and eventual congruence of US and South African foreign policies towards Africa in the 1990s commenced with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the freeing of Nelson Mandela. In South Africa, foreign policy obsolescence had very different effects on the government and the leading anti-apartheid movement, the African National Congress. The flux period in US and South African foreign policies towards Africa started very differently for each country's policy makers.
