ABSTRACT
With the wishes of international goodwill came an abundance of expectations and opinions on what course the new South Africa should take. Bolstered by international expectations and support, South African foreign policy makers made several moves early on which met with widespread approval. Of equal importance to the government was that some of the demands and expectations of South Africa's citizens be realised as soon as possible. So, as it pressed forward with founding the political, military, and police structures necessary to carry it out, the government unveiled a massive programme of economic and social development: the Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP). A final complication arising from South African foreign policy makers' unstated policy of universality was that it was assumed that South Africa could associate with any country, with any regime, with any organisation, with few or no tradeoffs.
