Description
South Africa’s decision to support an indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) at the 1995 Review and Extension Conference is an important moment in non-proliferation history. Conventional wisdom assumes that this was a dramatic volte-face in Pretoria's stance towards the global nuclear order, since the African National Congress (ANC) had historically been highly sceptical of the NPT, perceiving it as unjust and hypocritical. This incomplete account is rooted in a partial understanding of South Africa's nuclear experience which concentrates narrowly on 'statecraft', neglecting the deeper dynamics of the ANC's historic liberation struggle.
Through an analysis of the liberation movement's international campaign against the apartheid bomb, I offer an alternative view on what led Pretoria to support the NPT's extension. The ANC's purported scepticism of the NPT was not a universal principle: it was contingent on the continued existence of a nuclear-armed apartheid state. Non-proliferation norms were extremely valuable to the South African liberation movement, providing a means to prosecute the domestic struggle against apartheid on the global stage. The ANC thus forged a strong commitment to the ideals of non-proliferation, and Pretoria needed little persuasion to support indefinite extension in 1995. The conclusion here is not simply a technical one about diplomacy, nor an historical footnote. It invites us to reconsider the assumed boundaries between the so-called ‘local’ and ‘global’ in world nuclear politics, and opens further avenues for critical nuclear history.
