ABSTRACT
South Africa is the dominant force in a region of the world that is of increasing strategic importance to the West. South Africa’s regional hegemony complicates the ability of the superpowers to manage their rivalry in an area of the world that is of increasing geopolitical importance to the West. The interdependence model has great relevance for our understanding the behavior of states in Southern Africa. South Africa underscores its regional hegemony by a willingness to use both economic and military strength in a carrot-and-stick style of regional foreign policy. The focus of Western media attention is the social system of apartheid, by which the white South African government currently maintains economic and political dominance over other, more populous South African ethnic groups. The governments of South Africa will need to use every available resource to address the long-term problems successfully.
