The undiscovered country

The document is a collection of scholarly essays celebrating the career of Professor Maxi Schoeman. It examines her theoretical work in constructivism and human security, her critiques of South African foreign policy from the Mandela era through the Zuma administration, and her analysis of the South African National Defence Force's role in regional peacekeeping. The text highlights the tension between South Africa's constitutional human rights values and its pragmatic, often contradictory, international engagements.

• Professor Maxi Schoeman's scholarly approach is characterized by a constructivist perspective, emphasizing that a state's behavior is shaped by 'social meanings' and identities constructed from history, norms, and beliefs.
• Schoeman's research on the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) argues that the military is a key instrument of foreign policy, though it often faces a mismatch between ambitious strategic goals and available resources.
• The document identifies a significant 'implementation gap' in African regional security, where the stated visions of organizations like the African Union (AU) often conflict with the actual behavior of member states.
• South Africa's foreign policy under Jacob Zuma is critiqued for lacking coherence, being 'effectively rudderless', and prioritizing bilateral relations with China and Russia over multilateralism and human rights.
• The text highlights a contradiction between South Africa's domestic constitutional commitment to human rights and its international actions, such as its failure to arrest Omar al-Bashir and its notice of withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• Schoeman advocates for a 'human security' paradigm that shifts the focus of security from the protection of the state to the protection of individuals from threats like poverty, disease, and political oppression.
• The document argues that South Africa's claim to regional hegemony in Africa is 'symbolic' and often lacks the necessary regional consensus, as it is frequently perceived as paternalistic.
• South Africa's engagement with the UN Security Council has been marked by inconsistency, sometimes subordinating human rights to the goal of increasing influence among developing nations.
• The SANDF has evolved to incorporate 'developmental peace missions' (DPMs), which attempt to integrate military peacekeeping with humanitarian and development activities.
• There is a noted lack of women in senior decision-making roles within the SANDF and barriers to their full participation in peacekeeping, despite gains in overall employment equity.

APA

Reddy, V., & Thuynsma, H. (2019). The undiscovered country. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/mono200.pdf

Chicago

Reddy, Vasu, and Heather Thuynsma. The undiscovered country. Institute for Security Studies, 2019. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/mono200.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Reddy |first1=Vasu |last2=Thuynsma |first2=Heather |title=The undiscovered country |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=November 2019 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/mono200.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{reddy2019undiscovered, author = {Reddy, Vasu and Thuynsma, Heather}, title = {{The undiscovered country}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2019}, month = nov, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/mono200.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }