Why do Western powers suddenly care about the "global south"?

2023-01-18

Japanese Prime Minister Mansuo Shoda recently visited five countries in Europe and the United States. Before and during his visit, he mentioned that Japan, as the rotating presidency of this year, will promote the strengthening of relations between the G7 and the "global South" countries. Since last year, when communicating with scholars and diplomats from think tanks in Japan and other countries, the author has clearly felt that the concept of "global south" is warming up, and is increasingly popular with western academia and policy elites. At the moment of instability in the international and regional situation, why did Western countries, which have always paid little attention to "South-South cooperation", suddenly focus on "the global South"? It's really intriguing. The traditional concept of "South" and "North" appeared in the 1950s and 1960s. Under the background of the rising colonial liberation movement, some countries that broke away from the colonial yoke and embarked on the path of independent development began to use "South" to show that there was systematic inequality between the developing world and the "North" represented by industrialized countries. "South-South cooperation" has also become an important international agenda for developing countries to carry out economic and technological cooperation and pursue independent development. After the cold war, with the progress of globalization and the disappearance of camp confrontation, the concept of "North and South" has cooled down in the international political agenda. The rise of the concept of "global South" in recent years is clearly closely related to the changes in the international environment. What is the "global south"? There is no internationally recognized authoritative definition of its scope and nature. According to the definition of the financial center for South-South cooperation, the "global South" mainly includes the Group of 77 and China, covering a wide range of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Anne Garland Mahler, director of the Global South Research Program at the University of Virginia, USA, believes that the "global South" has three meanings: one is to replace the concept of "the third world" in the cold war, referring to the groups and regions that have been negatively affected in the capitalist globalization; Second, by adding the word "global" to the "South", the geographical meaning is further weakened and the differences in economic status between the South and the North are highlighted; The third is to reflect the mutual recognition of the countries in the South based on similar situations, and to counter the globalization led by capitalism. Sabastian Haug, a researcher at the Development Institute of the German think tank, pointed out that the "global south", as a symbol of resistance, represents both opposing the multilateral order dominated by the "north" and opposing hegemonic forces such as neo-liberal capitalism. It can be seen that the concepts of "global South" and "South" are in one continuous line, and also have distinct international political implications. The countries of "global South" are becoming an important force in the global pattern. In September last year, a Japanese scholar pointed out that although there are many countries in the "global south", they are marginalized in international affairs. The results of the United Nations vote on the Russian-Uzbekistan conflict show that these countries have diverse positions and do not blindly follow the West, highlighting the diverse values and interests of the developing world, which also sounded an alarm to the western world. Japan should increase its policy investment in the "global south" countries. At the same time, the discussion of the "Global South" in the domestic policy circle of the United States is also heating up. Last year, the United States hosted the "US-ASEAN Summit", the "Summit of the Americas" and the "US-Africa Summit" successively, which may be seen as a series of attempts by the Biden government to strengthen its influence on the "Global South". It should be noted that G7 began to pay attention to the "global south

Edit:wangwenting    Responsible editor:xiaomai

Source:china.cn

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