In 1984 when this volume was first published, the balance of power in South Africa was rapidly changing as apartheid faced growing international pressure. New social formations and institutions previously on the political margins moved into the mainstream to influence the course of events in ways which complicated the workings of local politics and challenged prevailing theories about the future of South Africa's racial order. Within the white elite, the military, in alliance with business leaders and technocrats in the bureaucratic and executive arms of government, emerged from virtual political obscurity to play a major role in shaping contemporary apartheid society. This full-scale study of the South African military as a racially heterogenous agent of the white state examines the origins of this development, with its capacity to alter the delicate balance between evolution and revolution. Set firmly in a framework deriving from contemporary literature on civil-military relations, it analyses the ideological and practical mechanics of the 'total strategy' enunciated as a programme for counterrevolution by the military establishment and seeks to determine the consequences of militarisation for political and social relations in South African society.
