Abstract

This thesis considers the Church of England as an International Actor operating in the geographical area of Southern Africa during the period 1970 to 1980. The central hypothesis, outlined in Section I, is that in a Transnational and Interdependency paradigm the Church of England is capable of operating as an International Actor, that it does so and that environment, history, domestic and foreign social involvement and theology all incline if to particular forms of involvement in particular geographical areas. Sections II and III, which form the main body of the work, test this hypothesis. They are empirical in that they use archival evidence and, to a lesser extent, the testimony of many of those concerned to examine the Church of England's attitudes -towards and attempts to affect outcomes in Rhodesial Zimbabwe and South Africa during the 1970's. In Section 1V it is demonstrated that the Church of England does operate as an International Actor, though the form and extent of that action is determined and modified by the factors outlined above. Moreover much of its effort in this respect is directed towards what may loosely be termed 'Establishment'. It is further suggested that though the very fact of its operation depends upon a Transnational paradigm the form of that operation demonstrates the existence of a predominantly Realist view of International Relations amongst those responsible for Church of England foreign policy during the 1970's.