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What is the Global South?

In the absence of an alternative, politicians and journalists will most likely continue to use the term "Global South". However, anyone interested in a more accurate description of the world should be wary of this confusing misnomer.

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Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

Nowadays, the term "Global South" is often used. For example, some commentators warn that Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip is "alienating the countries of the Global South", and we often hear that countries in the Global South want a ceasefire in Ukraine. But what do people mean when they use this term?

Geographically, it refers to the 32 countries that lie below the equator (in the Southern Hemisphere), which distinguishes them from the 54 countries that lie north of it as a whole. However, the term is often mistakenly used as shorthand for the global majority, even though most of the world's population lives above the equator (and that's where the bulk of the world's land mass is located). For example, we often hear that India, the most densely populated country in the world, and China, the second most populous, are competitors for the role of leader of the Global South. With this aim in mind, both countries recently held diplomatic conferences. However, both are located in the northern hemisphere.

Accordingly, this term is more of a political slogan than an accurate description of the world. And in that sense, apparently, it gained popularity, fulfilling the role of a euphemism to replace less acceptable terms. During the Cold War, countries that were not in the American or Soviet bloc were said to belong to the "Third World". In 1955, the non-aligned countries held their conference in Bandung, Indonesia, and to this day, 120 countries make up the weakened Non-Aligned Movement.

After the collapse of the Alliance of Nations in 1991, the idea of ​​not including the "Third World" lost much of its meaning. For some time it was accepted to speak of "less developed countries". But that term had a derogatory tone, so soon they started calling them "developing countries".

There are problems with that term as well (because not all low-income countries are developing), but it has proven useful in the context of UN diplomacy. The "Group of 77" (G77) now numbers 135 countries and is engaged in the promotion of their economic interests. But outside of the context of the UN, there are too many differences between these countries for their organization to play any significant role.

There is another strange term that has become fashionable - "emerging markets" ("new markets" or "countries with a new market economy"). It is used for countries like India, Mexico, Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Brazil and some more. Jim O'Neill, then managing director at Goldman Sachs, coined the BRICS acronym in 2001 for an article in which he called Brazil, Russia, India and China emerging tri-economy countries with high growth potential. Although O'Neill dealt with investment analysis, some political leaders, among them Russian President Vladimir Putin, seized on the idea of ​​such a group of countries as a potential diplomatic platform to counter America's global influence.

After a series of introductory meetings, the first BRICS summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia in 2009. And the very next year, the Republic of South Africa joined the group, so it was named BRICS. In August of last year, at the 15th BRICS summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that six countries with a new market economy (Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) would enter the bloc from January 1, 2024.

Since BRICS is a conference-holding body, it is often seen as a representative of the Global South. And yet, Brazil and South Africa (and now Argentina) are the only members of the group from the southern hemisphere. And as a political replacement of the "Third World", the BRICS group is quite limited both conceptually and organizationally. Although some members are democratic countries, most of them are authoritarian, and many are in conflict with each other.

For example, India and China have a disputed border in the Himalayas; Ethiopia and Egypt are in dispute over the water resources of the Nile River; Saudi Arabia and Iran are competing for strategic rivalry in the Persian Gulf. In addition, Russia's participation makes ridiculous the group's pretensions to represent the Global South.

The main value of this term is diplomatic. Although China is a middle-income country located in the northern hemisphere and rivals the United States in terms of influence in the world, it likes to present itself as a developing country that plays an important role within the Global South. In discussions with a Chinese scientist during a recent visit to Beijing, I discovered that there are disagreements between them. Some consider the term a useful political tool, while others think that a more accurate terminology would be to divide the world into high-middle-income or low-income countries. After all, even so, not all low-income countries have the same interests or priorities. For example, Somalia and Honduras have completely different problems.

For journalists and politicians, terms like "low-middle-income countries" are not very easy to pronounce and do not look particularly good in headlines. In pursuit of an alternative short name they will continue to use the term "Global South". But one who is interested in a more accurate description of the world must be careful with this misleading term.

The author is a professor at Harvard University

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2023. (translation: NR)

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