British Influence on Military Training and Education in South Africa: The Case of the South African Military Academy and its Predecessors

Visser, Deon

doi:10.1080/02582470208671419

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The widely divergent military traditions of the British and Afrikaners had to be reconciled in thinking, organisation and training in developing these forces. 9 The organisational culture of the Union and the South African Defence Force was, thus, an interesting blend of British military regimentalism and Boer frontierism. By 1994, the South African Defence Force (SADF) was the largest, most up-to-date and most organisationally sophisticated military force in Southern Africa.…”

Section: Dealing With the Pastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Professional Military Education and Training: Challenges Facing the South African Military

Esterhuyse

2006

Defence Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Dealing With the Pastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Professional Military Education and Training: Challenges Facing the South African Military

Esterhuyse

2006

Defence Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…16 Even as preparations were made in the 1920s for South Africa to take control of its defence policy, the Smuts-Churchill Agreement of 1921 allowed the UK to maintain control over the and traditions for decades to come. 18 The UDF wore similar uniforms, used a similar ranking system, and followed comparable procedure to their British counterparts.…”

Section: Historic Tiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

British Policy Towards Military Cooperation with the Republic of South Africa, 1961–1975

Feather¹

2018

The International History Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The early 1960s were a turbulent time in South Africa; the Sharpeville Massacre provoked condemnation from the international community, which, with the acceleration of decolonisation, was turning increasingly against Pretoria. The decision to withdraw its re-application to the Commonwealth in October 1960 further isolated South Africa. Despite this, UK-South African military cooperation remained largely unaffected until the pivotal Simonstown Agreement's termination in 1975. This article explores this relationship and explains why British policymakers consistently maintained links with an overtly racist regime. UK-South African military cooperation was persistently controversial and engendered frequent criticism from African members of the Commonwealth and from campaigning groups such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement, whose membership included Labour ministers. Concurrently, Pretoria was viewed as an important Cold War ally, particularly in the context of the build-up of Soviet naval incursions into the Indian Ocean from 1968 onwards. This article will analyse how British officials attempted to navigate its military relations with South Africa under such heated circumstances.

show abstract

“…Through careful selection of politically correct students, staff members, and curricula, the Academy became a bastion of Afrikanerdom in these formative years. 21 Imitating West Point as the leading military academy in terms of officer tertiary education, the Academy placed emphasis (despite the notion of a broad liberal education) on the natural sciences. Much emphasis was placed on mathematics, which was regarded as more suitable than the liberal arts in the cultivation of critical thought.…”

Section: Post-world War Ii: Focus On the Natural Sciencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Officer Education at the South African Military Academy

Heinecken

Visser

2008

Armed Forces & Society

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article reviews the status of military sociology in South Africa by examining where it is being taught and researched within sociology as a discipline and at the South African Military Academy (hereafter, Academy). The conclusion is reached that it has not been a prominent area of academic focus possibly because of the fact that at present only one civilian university's sociology department presents a related course. Looking at the historic development of the academic offerings at the Academy, at no time has military sociology been presented as a course, although it is masked within some of the other social science disciplines. Only recently has the relevance of military sociology as a discipline in its own right been acknowledged, and it appears as if it may well find a place in the education of young officers at the Academy in the near future.

show abstract

British Influence on Military Training and Education in South Africa: The Case of the South African Military Academy and its Predecessors

Cited by 5 publications

References 6 publications

Professional Military Education and Training: Challenges Facing the South African Military

Professional Military Education and Training: Challenges Facing the South African Military

British Policy Towards Military Cooperation with the Republic of South Africa, 1961–1975

Officer Education at the South African Military Academy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About