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2. Strengthening of South-South Co-operation3. Strengthening of North-South Co-operation4. Participation in the Global System of Governance5. Strengthening of Political and Economic RelationsSouth Africa’s gradual distancing from the explicit commitment to human rights inits foreign policy, and the strengthened commitment to more procedural features ofinternationalism can thus be read through the domestic process of change, whichthe ANC has undergone, along with the centralisation of political power in theoffice of the President. Foreign policy has not been immune to these tendencies. Tominimise political risks stemming from reckless international action – such asactions that alienated South Africa’s neighbours – the ANC leadership looked tomore muted action, such as a new focus on multilateralism, to project its foreignpolicy interests. As has been illustrated in the preceding chapter, however,internationalism does not obviate the interests of the state. It is possible both to bea ‘force for good’ in international politics, while pursuing state interests. However,the extent to which state interests and not party interests were being pursued is aquestion on which little light has been shed. Internationalism has been a responseboth to ideological components within the ruling party’s make-up, and to limitationsimposed by the institutions of state. Hence, the party did not have its own way onforeign policy, but this did not imply the strength of the legislature or executive,broadly speaking. The Presidency, and especially the state president, came to playpivotal roles in foreign policy formulation.4.1.3. International OutlookThe new South Africa was born in a specific international setting. The debates thathad proceeded within the ANC were silenced – momentarily – by its unbanning,and the need to make rapid decisions about policy as the government of a newSouth Africa. The ANC had benefited from all of the liberal tendencies in a worldthat was rapidly becoming unrecognisable to the realist approach to internationalaffairs. The beneficiary of the pressure exerted by a global human rights lobby thatstretched from Lagos to London, and from New York to New Zealand; and of the120