South Africa and Qatar in Gaza and Beyond: A New Dawn for Transformative Third-Party Intervention?
Abstract
As geopolitical realignment intensifies conflict and exposes failures in Western-led intervention, space is opening for alternative actors and approaches. Gaza marks a critical juncture as non-Western thirdparty actors assume prominent roles, raising questions about their intervention logics and implications for peace processes and outcomes. This paper develops a typology distinguishing transformative third-party intervention from dominant realist and liberal paradigms. Transformative intervention, as conceptualized here, pursues structural redress rather than conflict management, centers historically marginalized voices and agency, and engages global institutions and norms that shape intervention contexts and outcomes. Through interpretive case studies of South Africa and Qatar in Gaza and beyond, the paper examines the transformative, realist, and liberal logics evident in their practices across diverse forms of third-party intervention. Analysis reveals that both cases display strong transformative orientations grounded in distinct normative histories, capabilities, and structural positions. Their selective, hybrid use of realist and liberal instruments reflects the practical need to preserve access, leverage, and room for action within an order they seek to transform. The overall intervention can nonetheless be understood as transformative, in which those approaches are selectively deployed within a broader orientation toward structural redress, inclusion, accountability, and the pluralization of peacemaking authority.
Keywords
Mediation, hybridity, Global South, middle powers, non-Western diplomacy
Citation
McCandless, E., & Barakat, S. 2026. South Africa and Qatar in Gaza and Beyond: A New Dawn for Transformative Third-Party Intervention? Uluslararası İlişkiler, Advanced Online Publication, 2 October 2026: 1–23. DOI: 10.33458/uidergisi.2047720
Affiliations
Erin McCandless Professor & Director, Qatar-South Africa Center for Peace and Intercultural Understanding, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg E-Mail: [email protected] Orcid: 0000-0003-4240-8090
Sultan Barakat Professor, College of Public Policy, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha & Distinguished Visiting Professor, Qatar-South Africa Center for Peace and Intercultural Understanding, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg E-Mail: [email protected] Orcid: 0000-0003-3747-785X