title: Ukraine, the 2023 BRICS Summit and South Africa's non-alignment crisis
abstract: The African National Congress (ANC)’s historic links to the Soviet Union, its interpretation of non-alignment as being about resisting Western imperialism, and its contention that the abrogation by the West of its commitment not to expand further East, shaped the party’s initial response to the Russia-Ukraine war. Whereas certain factions within the ruling ANC interpreted non-alignment in ideological terms, others saw non-alignment rather as a strategy to enhance autonomy. For many South African