South Africa has returned to the international spotlight after being elected to serve another two-year stint as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, starting in January 2011 (alongside other new members Colombia, Germany, India and Portugal). This comes just two years after South Africa completed a previous term, in 2007-08, and underlines the country's status as an African leader, especially in terms of economic size but also (to a lesser extent) in political influence. South Africa will prioritise African and emerging-market issues during its new term and will back the case for reforming and expanding the council, including a permanent seat for Africa. Apart from South Africa, the continent's other current representatives on the council are Nigeria and Gabon, whose terms expire at the end of 2011.

South Africa's earlier term in 2007-08, when the former president, Thabo Mbeki, was at the helm, was not a great success. The country was criticised for supporting regimes with poor human rights records and for a softly-softly approach to Zimbabwe's internal crisis that made little headway. South Africa's new stint may run more smoothly, helped by the preference of the current president, Jacob Zuma, for pragmatism over ideology and a desire to make a more positive impression. In a promising sign, the new South African delegation has already backed proposals to include sexual orientation in a new human rights resolution, retreating from earlier objections and winning rare praise from local human rights groups: a veteran activist, Zakie Achmat, described it as a "major change". Some of the key African issues likely to confront South Africa at the UN include the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire, the possible creation of Southern Sudan, Somalia-based piracy around the Horn of Africa and the perennial Zimbabwe question.

Mr Zuma's relatively hectic foreign travel schedule confirms South Africa's intention to play a more prominent global and regional role and to position itself as a gateway to the rest of the continent. Since assuming the presidency in mid-2009, Mr Zuma has undertaken 30 official trips-including visits to the US, India, China, Russia, Brazil, the UK, France and several African states-and there is no sign of a slowdown. Mr Zuma has faced some criticism for being out of the country at critical times (for example, he was in China at the peak of last year's strikes), but he is not a "hands-on" president, preferring to leave operational matters to ministers, and therefore his absence is usually not crucial.