A critical analysis of president Ronald Reagan’s shifting policy towards apartheid in south Africa : a humanitarian impetus or supremacy calculus?

Abstract EN

This paper examines the tacit calculations that prompted President Ronald Reagan to favour racial equality in the face of the apartheid crisis in South Africa in his second term, in contrast to his first term's pro-apartheid stance, based on Putnam's Two-Level Game theory.

It aims to prove that the Reagan administration's seemingly steadfast backing to Pretoria's practice of apartheid was largely due to its complicity with Pretoria's aims, in order to protect America's Cold War strategic and economic interests.

The sudden shift in Reagan's policy assumption, on the other hand, was largely due to a post-Cold War estimate of Pretoria's disutility following the fall of Communism and the rise of America as the world's lone superpower.