Norms in International Relations: The Struggle Against Apartheid

In this second edition of Norms in International Relations, Audie Klotz revisits the global struggle against apartheid and considers its impact on how we grapple with race and racism in international relations today. Originally published in the wake of South Africa's democratic transition, Norms in International Relations documented how sustained international activism transformed apartheid from a domestic injustice into a global problem. Through chapters on multilateral institutions and bilateral pressures, Klotz showed how sanctions campaigns challenged state interests and reshaped global norms. This second edition retains the original chapters as a historical snapshot of late-Cold War diplomacy, while new material traces the evolving meaning of apartheid itself—from a uniquely racialized regime to a more diffuse symbol of inequality. Klotz cautions that as "apartheid" becomes a generalized moral shorthand, its roots in systemic anti-Blackness risk being obscured. Bringing together case study specificity with broad contemporary resonance, this second edition invites new readers to rethink the politics of race, resistance, and norm diffusion in international relations—and to confront what the field still too often leaves out.