4–7 Jun 2024
Europe/London timezone

Russia and the Global South: a critical analysis

5 Jun 2024, 16:45

Description

The era-defining rupture between Russia and the Western liberal democracies resulting from the war in Ukraine threatens political and economic instability and the creation of new dividing lines across the globe. But Russia-West antagonism is only one of the causes exacerbating existing trends towards nationalism, economic protectionism, the recurrence of security dilemmas and fractures in the international order. For many countries in the Global South (GS), Russia’s war with Ukraine is peripheral to their core concerns. Regional disputes, internal conflicts, food and energy shortfalls, climate change and environmental challenges, resource wars, and failures of domestic governance as governments reject democratic accountability - all combine to cause instability and retard development. Yet, a greater sense of agency among the emerging nations is generating new ideas for collective problem-solving in the pursuit of economic growth and social well-being; they seek the reconstruction of the global political, economic and financial order through a new consensus at the UN and reform of Western-led institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. Regional leaders such as Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria seek greater representation at the UN, and a better deal on trade and finance. Consequently, they are receptive to Russia’s narratives about a multipolar world order and the democratisation of an international system based on the sovereign equality of states, cultural diversity and traditional moral values. Nevertheless, the avoidance on the part of many GS states of an unequivocal commitment to either the US liberal (or, increasingly, transactional) rules-based order, or Russia’s attempt to exploit post-colonial dissatisfaction with the perceived Western monopoly on political and economic power, requires critical analysis. This paper, part of an ongoing research programme, aims to open up a fresh perspective by harnessing insights of state elites, authoritative commentators and societal opinion to explore how Russia’s foreign policy-making impacts on the countries of the Global South, and in turn investigates how policy thinking and practice in the latter influences Russia’s external political and trade relations.
Key words: Russia; Global South; Ukraine war; United Nations; post-colonial; sovereign equality; cultural diversity

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