Role of SADC'S peace keeping mission : a case study of South Africa in the Lesotho conflict

Abstract

The overall aim of the study is to investigate the role of SADC's peace keeping mission: A case study of South Africa in the Lesotho conflict. The researcher used the Realist paradigm of international relations to refute South Africa's rationalist claim that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) sanctioned the armed intervention, and that it was aimed at promoting democracy and stability. Realists interpret world politics as a struggle for power and survival in the anarchic world. The report therefore seeks to (a) determine the reasons for military intervention and the extent to which it was conducted on humanitarian grounds; (b) investigatethe degree to which the intervention by the South African state was encouraged by national interests; and (c) determine the nature of involvement by the SADC, African Union (AU) and theUnited Nations Security Council (UNSC) in the 1998 intervention, to allow South Africa toattack another state. The study used qualitative techniques for data collection and analysis. Qualitative techniques were mostly used in that they provided the researcher with an understanding to investigate the role of SADC's peace keeping mission: A case study of South Africa in the Lesotho conflict. Both primary and secondary data were used for analysis in the study. Secondary data were obtained from government publications, other publications, and reports. In this context, the researcher argue that South Africa appear to have used the intervention, as a realist foreign policy tool, to pursue its strategic and economic interests, especially without authorization from the UN, the AU and the SADC.