by Joan Swart | Sep 16, 2026 | Defence Policy and Strategy, Diplomacy, Energy Security, Global Power, Middle East, STRATEGIC STUDIES
Abstract: War-related disruption, economic pressure and growing public dissatisfaction are increasingly converging across the Middle East. The conditions differ from those of 2011, but their interaction could create a second-order dynamic in which external conflict...
by Joan Swart | Sep 12, 2026 | South Africa, Africa and Global Power, Anglo-Boer War (1899 - 1902), KULTURELE IDENTITEIT/CULTURAL IDENTITY, STRATEGIC STUDIES, The World Between the Lines
Abstract: Written in 1899 as America crossed into overseas empire, Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden offers a revealing view of power, responsibility and the assumptions of imperialism. More than a century later, its deepest question remains: does the power to...
by Joan Swart | Sep 5, 2026 | Defence Policy and Strategy, Foreign Affairs (RSA), National Security - Nasionale Veiligheid, South Africa, STRATEGIC STUDIES
Abstract: As the global order becomes increasingly multipolar, South Africa faces a strategic dilemma: it possesses significant geopolitical advantages but lacks a settled conception of its national interest. This article explores whether strategic culture,...
by Joan Swart | Aug 23, 2026 | Defence Policy and Strategy, National Security - Nasionale Veiligheid, South Africa, STRATEGIC STUDIES
Abstract: Foreign policy is often presented as a calculation of national interest, separate from emotion and morality. Yet national interest itself is shaped by history, values and strategic culture, raising a difficult question: when principle, international law and...
by Joan Swart | Aug 17, 2026 | Defence Policy and Strategy, National Security - Nasionale Veiligheid, South Africa, STRATEGIC STUDIES
Abstract: South Africa inherited distinct military and political traditions that were never fully synthesised into a coherent post-1994 strategic culture. Rebuilding effective military strategy and doctrine therefore requires neither restoration nor rejection, but a...
