ABSTRACT
South Africa gained its dubious prominence in international politics in the post-Second World War era, through the almost universal condemnation of the policy of apartheid as violating internationally acceptable norms (Klotz 1995). However, several other related issues further complicated the international relations of the state. Prominent among them were the question of the South African administration of South West Africa (Nambia), which bedevilled relations between the United Nations and South Africa until 1990, and the expansionary intent of South African governments until the 1960s with regard to the then British High Commission territories (now Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland). Further issues, notably economic and political sanctions imposed by other states against South Africa and its retaliatory destabilization of its neighbours, led to a significant and possibly decisive impact of external affairs on the pursuit of apartheid.
