South Africa's Involvement in the Central African Republic

Pretoria’s recent deployment of forces to the Central African Republic was not motivated by a need to defend a core national security interest or demonstrate its military capability; rather, its objective was likely to secure its position as a regional guarantor of security by offering protection to the country's leaders. Pretoria has extended similar offers to other African leaders in the past in an effort to advance its status as a regional power. This selective deployment of force offers Pretoria a more tempered approach to foreign involvement than launching a full-scale intervention against rebel forces, a capability it carefully safeguards for nearby threats.