Two views are explored in this report. In the first paper an evaluation of détente is explored. The first point has to do with the contrast between the international responses, on the one hand to South Africa, and on the other to inequality and the curtailment of liberty in other countries. How do we explain this undeniable yet unparalled international concern with one country? A concern whose expression is not confined to any one group of countries and which often appears indifferent to the appalling facts of life elsewhere. The second viewpoint explores the socio-political dispensation in the country and the steps taken by the outside world to change the internal politics of South Africa. However, from the beginning it was clear that an accord or solution to the satisfaction of all concerned was out of the question. What is important however, is the fact that these hostilities forced South Africans to come to terms with the realities of contemporary world politics and to realign their thinking, insofar as the perennial problems of
the social structure of their society were concerned.
