South Africa’s Emerging “Soft Power” Influence in Africa and Its Impending Limitations: Will the Giant Be Able to Weather the Storm?

Ogunnubi, Olusola; Amao, Olumuyiwa Babatunde

doi:10.1080/19392206.2016.1242978

Cited by 10 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Notably, South Africa has taken advantage of the soft power opportunities among other African countries. The soft power capabilities of South Africa include its post-apartheid democratic political ideals that honoured the established values of rule of law under the constitution; diplomatic influence in Africa through the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), African Union (AU), and in the world via the G20 and BRICS; economic influence as a result of multinationals’ penetration around Africa, such as DSTV, MTN and retail chains; a huge number of respected personalities with consequent goodwill acquired; cultural and media exports; highly ranked universities leading various fields of research; tourism, and hospitality (Ogunnubi and Amao 2016; Tella 2019). South Africa is regarded highly for its sporting prowess globally among the public.…”

Section: Nigeria and South Africa’s Materials And Ideational Capabili...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Major Constraints for Regional Hegemony: Nigeria and South Africa in Perspective

Aleyomi

2021

Insight on Africa

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The quest for a complementary regional hegemonic dispensation has been an enduring component in Africa. While studies have recognised the increase in power assets of some states within the continent, literature is replete with the idea that no state can equal or defeat Nigeria and South Africa in contesting for regional powers. Though, this impression appears plausible. However, there are limited scholarly contributions to the devastating conditions that undermined the regional powers’ influential position to enhance legitimacy and positive image-making for African rebirth in global politics. It is against this backdrop that the current effort examines the constraints that hinder the credibility and attractive assets of the two regional powers in African policy. Relying on key-informant interview and secondary sources for the collection of data and the interpretive qualitative method for data analysis, the findings reveal that domestic limitations are major impediments to regional hegemonic powers’ dispensation. This article argues that possession of remarkable material capabilities without corresponding legitimacy and diplomatic means of ‘appealing’ to other states is not enough in the pursuit of hegemonic status. It, therefore, concludes that Nigeria and South Africa must tackle the domestic crises that consistently decline the credibility and continental leadership to curb the global inequality against Africa.

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Section: Nigeria and South Africa’s Materials And Ideational Capabili...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Major Constraints for Regional Hegemony: Nigeria and South Africa in Perspective

Aleyomi

2021

Insight on Africa

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“…Interestingly, some of these economies were particularly promising in the first decade of the millennium, such as Turkey (Parlar Dal ), Mexico (Villanueva Ulfgard and López ), and Chile (Gutiérrez and Jaimovich ). It is also worth mentioning countries with high cultural and political capital/power such as Brazil (Stuenkel ), Poland (Zarycki, Smoczyński, and Warczok ), and South Africa (Ogunnubi and Amao ). Finally, there are the cases of South Korea (Gray ), Singapore (Calder ), and Australia (Byrne, Tyler, and Harris Rimmer ; Laifer and Kitchen ), all displaying very high levels of generalized development while not being military or political powers.…”

Section: Reflections On Modern State Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Capturing the Dilemmas of Modernity and Tradition in Mexico

Ulfgard

Villanueva

2019

Politics & Policy

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This Special Issue examines the dilemmas of modernity, modernization, and tradition in Mexico from a variety of disciplinary perspectives covering foreign policy, cultural diplomacy and nation image creation, security politics, civil society participation in domestic and foreign policy making, congruence/dissonance in the implementation of global and national development goals, poverty reduction strategies, education reforms and global education models, urban growth, and environmental concerns. The contributors identify and analyze events associated with the concept of disjuncture and how it has produced fragmented and confusing realities. Implicitly or explicitly, each author discusses the "push" and "pull" factors embedded in the forces of tradition and modernity that influence the policy-making processes and occasionally give rise to disjunctures in specific areas. How do these disjunctures manifest themselves empirically and conceptually? If they seem to be produced and reproduced over and over again, what can be done to break this pattern? These are some of the underlying questions facing Mexico and its current transition in political history.

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Sustainable development goals implementation in a post‐colonial African State: Any future for the African Continental Free Trade Area?

Chidozie,

Osimen,

Bhadmus

et al. 2024

Sustainable Development

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This paper examined the prospect of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in the context of the SDGs. It took its bearing from the contemporary structure of most African states, arguing that the reality of the continent's postcolonial condition could impede the implementation of the AfCFTA. Its refrain is that studies on how Nigeria and South Africa, as regional powers, have used their economic and political influence to advance the SDGs' implementation throughout Africa, using different South–South development frameworks are few. In other words, the institutionalization of a strategic collaboration agenda through a Nigeria‐South Africa‐coordinated African response to the new powers, in the area of timely implementation of the SDGs is lacking. This study affirms that for the AfCFTA to be successful, it is incumbent on the regional hegemons to build a suitable institutional framework and governance structure that upholds the rule of law and encourages harmonization, consistency, and predictability.

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South Africa’s Emerging “Soft Power” Influence in Africa and Its Impending Limitations: Will the Giant Be Able to Weather the Storm?

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Major Constraints for Regional Hegemony: Nigeria and South Africa in Perspective

Major Constraints for Regional Hegemony: Nigeria and South Africa in Perspective

Introduction: Capturing the Dilemmas of Modernity and Tradition in Mexico

Sustainable development goals implementation in a post‐colonial African State: Any future for the African Continental Free Trade Area?

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