ADRIAN GUELKE is Professor of Comparative Politics and Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflict, Queen's University, Belfast. He was previously Jan Smuts Professor of International Relations, University of Witwatersrand. He is editor of the South African Journal of International Relations and is author of many books including South Africa in Transition.

'Adrian Guelke has a considerable reputation for effectively challenging the conventional wisdom. This text amply confirms his analytical skills and - in particular - a willingness to take issue with more orthodox interpretations of South Africa's role in international politics.' - Professor J.E.Spence OBE, King's College London, UK '[O]riginal and well-informed...The chapters work best where there is a conventional wisdom to be exploded, but Geulke also makes fresh sense out of a number of unusually contested issues, for example whether segregation was 'home-grown' or 'imported', whether there was or was not a 'blue-print' for apartheid, and whether the Botha presidency should be understood as a new departure or a 'militarized cul de sac'. - Anthony Butler, Political Studies Review 'His book is a significant contribution to our understanding of how profoundly global developments influenced in the past and are likely in the future to influence South Africa.' - Merle Lipton, International Affairs

• PrefaceIntroduction: Apartheid's Global SignificanceThe Debate on the Nature of South Africa's Racial Policies: Totalitarian or Colonial?Origins of Racial Policy: Consequence of an Imperialist War or the Prejudice of the Frontier?Segregation: Home-grown or Imported?The Theory and Practice of Apartheid: Was There a Blueprint?South Africa in a Post-Colonial World: Modernising or Eroding Apartheid?From Vorster to Botha: New Departure or Militarised Cul de Sac?The Pursuit of a Negotiated Settlement: Choice or Necessity?The Unexpected Transition to Majority Rule: Analysing a Miracle?The Worldwide Anti-Apartheid Movement: Peripheral or Crucial?Conclusion: Taking the Long View on Apartheid's Demise.