Since the post-World War II advent of a global rules-based multilateral system, the United States of America has been involved in numerous military interventions in other countries. Lest we forget, none of them have ended well. Syria and Libya in 2011, Iraq in 2003, and Afghanistan in 2001. And of course, we remember Panama in 1989 when they removed Manuel Noriega.
We shouldn’t forget their attacks – direct or through proxies – in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Grenada, Honduras, Haiti… the list goes on. The bombing this month of parts of Venezuela and the abduction of their president (good guy or not) and his wife is a continuation of the USA’s disregard for international law and global cooperation, this time without any efforts to disguise their insatiable appetite for oil. But US imperialism is not something that needs to be debated – if you still believe they are the good guys in world politics, then you need to reread history.
It is South Africa’s response to this terrorism that has my attention. Our political parties provide quite an interesting kaleidoscope of political positions on the attack on Venezuela. I was surprised by the outright condemnation of the USA’s breach of international law and the United Nations Charter by many parties.
I expected the ANC, EFF, and MKP to be stridently critical of the US in their statements and was not surprised by the references to ‘comrade Maduro’. In my view, a comrade is someone who behaves well and doesn’t steal from or silence their opponents. Many of the smaller parties appreciate the need to call out the US’s rogue behaviour, including the Good Party, Rise Mzansi, and ACTION SA. Build One SA didn’t think it prudent to specifically condemn the US action but called for a UN discussion, while the Patriotic Alliance seems excited about the use of power to advance self-interest.
“Power makes its own rules” is a quote from their spokesperson. And then the old Afrikaner enclave party, the Freedom Front Plus, welcomes the end of socialism and criticises the ANC’s relationships with countries not aligned to the US. The most telling response was the Democratic Alliance choosing to decline comment on the US action. Instead, they go all-in on the Department for International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), challenging the absence of similar condemnation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I suppose it is consistent – the DA’s obfuscation and deflection on the genocide in Gaza follow a similar script.
I would not want to be a diplomat today, and I doff my hat to the sterling work of our minister, director-general, and their teams as they navigate a complex world in which the very foundations of multilateralism and cooperation are under threat. I take pride in our country’s principled action against genocidaires at the International Court of Justice. This and other interventions give expression to a foreign policy approach that centres on Africa and the global south, multilateralism (UN, BRICS, G20), and economic diplomacy (investment, trade), while upholding values such as human rights, democracy, peace, and international law.
It must be hard to get this right all the time, and there are some friendships we have that make me a little uneasy. On balance, though, and coming from a layperson’s perspective, I think our diplomats get it right more often than not. South Africa remains a consistent voice for reforming the United Nations to be more representative of the global community, to strengthen its ability to prevent and stop wars, and to cultivate greater accountability by those in power. This stance comes at a cost, and US antagonism to SA will challenge our efforts to address the social and economic problems we face. Ironically, it was apparently Alexander Hamilton, one of the US founding fathers, who said that ‘If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.’ Let’s gird ourselves for the consequences of not rolling over to the bully of the world.