From Theory to Culture: Emergent South African Strategic Culture

Abstract

Within the field of Security Studies, strategic culture is no longer the sole domain of major powers as smaller and middle powers are receiving increasing attention and entering the debate on this important phenomenon. Although acknowledged as a difficult topic within the field of Security Studies and its interface with Strategic Studies, theoretical progress on strategic culture nonetheless comprises three distinct waves. These waves are buffeted between ideas on little (if any) scope for change and viewpoints of more scope for change than depicted by earlier thought. Nonetheless, no real consensus exists and the theoretical landscape is characterised by a multitude of different opinions. Although literature on this topic extends into the 21st century, strategic culture remains unexplored in South African academic literature on security and strategy. However, drawing upon third-generation theory, shifts in the practice of South African strategic culture come into focus. These shifts offer some insights into particular South African practices, but these preferences remain vulnerable to the declaratory-operational void posited by second-generation theory. It appears that progress in cultivating or even imposing a different South African strategic culture through changes in political culture, foreign policy and defence, is hampered by the operation of inconsistency and norm stretching.