The BRICs That Build Audacity? South Africa’s Policy Toward the Russia-Ukrainian Conflict and the Future of Geopolitics in Africa

ABSTRACT: The outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war on February 24, 2022, and the “assertiveness” in the patterns of responses of some African states, such as South Africa, have generated significant interest from scholars and policy experts. Attempts to explain this geopolitical rarity have culminated in isolated debates with unsatisfactory inferences. In this brief, I examine South Africa’s “audacious” policy toward the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. I draw from secondary sources to argue that, beyond a history of fraternal diplomatic relations, South Africa’s policy stands are conditioned on BRICS’ s dynamics, which offer a more potent and respectable alternative to Western paternalistic geopolitical blocs.