ABSTRACT
A South Africa that failed to come to terms with its self and situation, so the thinking went risked marginalisation. If South African foreign policy makers hoped to advance South African interests, they had to establish better priorities, and to pick and choose their issues and moments carefully. However, as of late 1996 key South African foreign policy makers had not yet realised the extent to which international perceptions had, and were, shifting. For them, the events of April-May 1994 were as if they had happened yesterday—not at all surprising given the length of their struggle and the sacrifices made to end apartheid. The timing of events between the Syrian arms row and the decline in the value of South African government bonds proved to be a wake-up call for sections of the South African foreign policy establishment. An understanding was dawning that reputationai responses could have tangible, detrimental effects.
