This latest volume of South African Foreign Policy Review assesses South Africa's foreign policy during the presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa.

Focusing on such themes as foreign policy leadership, policy architecture, diplomacy, national interests, and the country's bi- and multilateral relations, the authors also consider how South Africa can maintain―and even increase―its role both in the region and internationally.

Spanning the Mbeki and Zuma administrations, this volume of South African Foreign Policy Review explores questions of continuity and change.

Among the topics covered are the roles of the foreign minister, special advisers, think tanks, and other domestic sources that shape foreign policy, as well as international issues such as strategic partnerships, the ICC, international trade, development cooperation, and nuclear diplomacy.

What is South Africa’s foreign policy, who makes it and why does it matter? These are the varied questions that scholarship has grappled with following South Africa’s triumphant return to the global stage in 1994. In this edited volume, the authors assess the position and input of actors beyond the traditional structures of the Presidency and the department of international relations and cooperation, most notably civil society actors in foreign policy decision-making. In an environment where domestic actors are argued to be found increasingly on the outside of policy decision-making circles, this book brings back into the fold the discussion of the value of participation. In looking at foreign policy through the different standpoints of other government departments, parliament, labour, business, the African National Congress (ANC), civil society and the role of gender, the chapters offer insights into how South Africa’s foreign policy is understood and how these actors seek an input in its direction. It is this engagement that ultimately makes foreign policy matter to all South Africans as the country moves forward in a turbid international environment.

'A garden is the best alternative therapy' - Germaine Greer. Seasoned gardeners, urbanites with window boxes and those who simply potter when the sun is shining will savour this miscellany of quotations and prose celebrating the great outdoors, interspersed with practical advice on everything from keeping your shed in order to bird spotting.