2024 Elections: from US to Europe, India and Iran: South Africa's place in the world

2024 ELECTIONS: FROM THE US TO EUROPE, INDIA AND IRAN, AND

SOUTH AFRICA’S PLACE IN THE WORLD

John Matisonn, author, journalist

Tuesday 21 January  3.00 pm  COURSE FEES R110; Staff and students R55

How should South Africa respond to recent political changes in the US, UK, France, Germany, India and Iran?

This lecture will assess the impact of the multiple elections in 2024, then attempt to develop a unifying approach to a more coherent South African foreign policy.

South Africa’s interests are neither the same as the West’s, nor the same as China’s. The West has bequeathed us a framework for a free society and democratic government, but its history of ill-considered wars that have failed in the twenty-first century requires us to take an independent view of Western foreign policies. Western interests are often not the same as South Africa’s. China and other BRICS countries offer South Africa a seat at the table with major economic powers, but efforts to promote Chinese or Russian modes of government need to be treated with informed scepticism.

A nuanced understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of our former allegiances is required, so that we can preserve the West’s positive influence on our constitutional freedoms and democratic tradition, while taking an independent view of its foreign policies.

This lecture will touch on some of the issues raised by arguments for a multi-polar versus a bipolar worldview.

TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/performance.aspx?itemid=1554795948

John Matisonn is the author of Cyril’s Choices: Lessons from 25 years of freedom in South Africa, and God, Spies and Lies, Finding South Africa’s Future through its Past. He spent 19 months working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, as Chairperson of the Electoral Media Commission for the 2005 parliamentary and provincial council elections, in 2009 as International Adviser to the Electoral Media Commission he established, and in 2010 as Acting Project Manager of the UN’s Election Project. John was a Washington correspondent for six years and writes a weekly column on US politics for news24. He also presents a weekly TV programme, THE FORUM with John Matisonn, on Cape Town Television.