The Royal Society of SA and the Academy of Science of South Africa invite you to a webinar on 17th September 2025 @ 17h00 SAST presented by Prof Peter Vale FRSSAf, Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria on
“Individuals, Ideas & Institutions:
How the ‘International’ came to South Africa”
Abstract: Using cartoons as a point of analytical entry, this presentation traces the course of South Africa’s complicated relationship with the international community. In no small part, this is due to the race factor, which prevented the apartheid state from taking up its place in what today is known as the ‘liberal international order’. It will also trace a strain of thinking that believes the academic discipline called International Relations was birthed, not in Wales, as the orthodoxy holds, but in Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa. The paper concludes with remarks on the country’s present position in world affairs.
About the Speaker: Peter Vale FRSSAf is Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria and Visiting Professor of International Relations at the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil. He has taught in the US, Australia, Brazil, Norway, and Germany. Vale has published extensively in several interrelated fields: International Relations, Politics, Social Theory and African Studies. He has received several honours for his work, including the Marloth Medal (2025) from the Royal Society of South Africa.
Date: Wednesday 17th September 2025
Time: 17h00
ALL WELCOME – PLEASE FORWARD TO COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS