Editorial: Courting India is in SA’s best interest
While the US by its own volition, is edging out of the diplomacy arena, India’s economic growth is likely to start outpacing that of China in the near future
There was a time SA punched above its weight in international relations, but that effervescent legacy dwindled during the era of former president Jacob Zuma. With a new, internationalist President Cyril Ramaphosa SA is now in a position to make up some lost ground. But how and where should SA focus? A lot depends on how you imagine global politics is likely to unfold. The most obvious and most key feature of the modern era is that the period of a single, global superpower in the form of the US is fading, and in its place will be the triad: the US, China and India. More than that, the nature of “super-powerdom” is also changing. The idea of “global leadership” is embodied in a single nation is fading rapidly. If the presidency of Donald Trump has demonstrated anything, it’s that in a straight battle between the best interests of the globe as a whole and the US in particular, the answer will be “America first”. Trump has willingly jettisoned the notion of the US as a “force for good” ...
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