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‘new’ South Africa would be a different kind of state from apartheid South Africa;and almost seamlessly positioned the country within the prevailing internationaldiscourse on a ‘new world order’, characterised by the rule of international law, theprimacy of human rights and great power peace. Moreover, the sixth point on thelist conceded – albeit without labelling it as such - the constraining influence of‘globalisation’, whose perceived all-pervasiveness was gradually to take hold of thecollective imagination of the top ANC leadership through the early 1990s andbeyond. 386Two elements of the post-liberation history of the ANC combined to createdilemmas for the organisation, however. These were: its dubious legacy of a‘miracle’ transition from apartheid, which was set up as an example to others; and,South Africa’s material power, which resulted in high levels of dependence by othercountries in the region, along with trepidation concerning how the governmentwould conduct itself in its ‘backyard’.In one sense, much was expected of South Africa, both in its immediate region, andon a global scale, because of its relatively peaceful transition; and because of itsposition as the pre-eminent power in sub-Saharan Africa. It was expected to be apositive ‘force’ and yet it had to show great sensitivity and circumspection in how itprojected this force. In the few years on either side of the transition, because therewas a great deal of uncertainty and a lack of clarity about the form that the ‘moralhigh ground’ would take – whether loyalty to African politics or to new globalnorms – this was a period of uncertainty, and great expectation – for South Africanpolicymakers and practitioners.An early indicator of the direction South Africa was inclined to take was given bythe Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Before this state-drivendevelopment programme was shelved in June 1996, it featured prominently in theself-perception of the South African government. This was most noticeable in the1996 Department of Foreign Affairs Green Paper (Discussion Document). TheRDP was central in positioning South Africa’s relations with its neighbours, and386 For a detailed discussion of this process as it related to the acceptance by the ANCtop leadership of neoliberal economic ideas, see Taylor, Stuck in Middle GEAR?,Chapters 3 and 4.165