A number of successes and challenges were identified which contributed to the shaping of the policy during the period in question. It was argued that the demise of apartheid brought about freedom of choice of new policies and friends in the international arena. The greatest challenge was normalisation of relations after decades of isolation and sanctions because of apartheid. Many treaties had to be signed to bring back the country into the rules based world order. The country was recognised for having extraordinary human resource, such as Tata Madiba, Archbishop Tutu, FW de Klerk to name a few, who scaled up the image of the country post-apartheid era. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission showed the country to have a unique moral power, and that experience became an international good practice for other countries to learn from. South Africa was congratulated for openly condemning 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, much as later it criticised the US for its 'war on terror' campaign in Irag. As a result, the relations with the US had been fluid as the US became very critical of South Africa's stand on war on terror.