Securing South Africa

The mandate of South Africa's recently appointed National Planning Commission includes addressing ‘defence and security matters’. Building on an assessment of the threat environment facing South Africa that was published in the previous number of this journal, this article sketches a strategy for securing South Africa. The armed forces of a state can achieve their mandate in a number of ways, primarily through deterrence, dissuasion, and ultimately, if necessary, physically denying, disrupting or defeating adversaries seeking to harm the state or its citizens. The strategy outlined in this article envisages two main components, namely ‘shield’ capabilities designed to deflect or absorb attacks and hostile actions aimed at South Africa and its citizens, and ‘spear’ capabilities enabling engagement with adversaries beyond South Africa's borders and its maritime exclusive economic zone. A notable feature of the strategy is that it advocates the employment of ‘developmental peacekeeping’ and ‘anti-insurgency’ techniques in building South Africa's neighbours into stable and prosperous democracies

Commission · Deterrence theory · Harm · Mandate · Peacekeeping · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · State (computer science · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Military History and Strategy · Peacebuilding and International Security · Public Administration