South Africa’s non-aligned foreign policy stance was relatively straightforward to maintain when the world was globalising and democratising. Conditions have turned decidedly hostile in recent years, however, with geopolitical tensions manifesting not only in trade wars but in real ones. If South Africa is to sustain its approach, it will need to become far more proactive in defining what it means rather than reacting to developments in a way that could see it either sliding unwittingly into one or other camp, or becoming entirely irrelevant on the international stage.