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national capabilities and therewith, national interests. As Neorealism has provenbarren in analyses of developments in international relations since the end ofbipolarity, it is important that unit-level factors: states’ motivations, interests, anddomestic capabilities, are subjected to greater scrutiny by way of understanding theirtrajectories in international affairs, and their likely responses to external threats andopportunities.It has been a goal of the framework presented here to underscore the contingencyof emerging states’ responses to international challenges and advantages. Theexternal environment may present opportunities for expansion – whether in termsof territory or interest – but what determines expansion is state power, or thecapacity of the state to convert its national capabilities, measured in traditional ‘hardpower’ terms, into the ability to project power abroad. This relies on numerousdomestic factors – material and ideational - many of which the governing party of astate has privileged access to.Hence, the mobilisation and extraction of resources in South Africa and Brazil, asshown by the preceding discussion, entails managing the domestic party politicalprocess, which includes the management of material and ideational resources. Thechange of leadership in both countries has provided a test for the ideas presentedhere. While the highly personalised, centralised decision-making structureengineered by Mbeki has prejudiced South African foreign policymaking since hisresignation, leaving it without a clear goal and centre, Lula left the well-oiledmachinery of Itamaraty still in place when his second term expired. This points to asound platform for Brazil’s projection of power, both regionally and further afield,depending on the future relations between the foreign policy and militarybureaucracies, and the Presidency. In South Africa, the centrality of Mbeki to theforeign policymaking machinery during his tenure as president, at the expense of theinstitutional development of DFA, has left foreign policy vulnerable to sectionalinterests and incoherence following his departure.In the final analysis, in addition to the relative distribution of power, ideas,individuals and institutions are all crucial elements of the foreign policies andtrajectories of emerging powers. The discussion entertained by this thesis is thus298