Alec Russell makes an excellent point in his FT column “How the west should re-engage with the global south” (Opinion, October 31) when he takes note of the rise of Brics and states that “global power is shifting” and “the post-1945 order is crumbling”.
The expanding Brics is but one response to the malaise afflicting the world order. This malaise is centred on the failure of the west, led by the US, to account for the rise of the global south, a meta-region stretching from Latin America to south-east Asia and the Pacific containing about 70 per cent of the global population and most of the world’s growth in people and economic output.
Russell correctly prescribes climate finance as a pathway to repairing west-south relations. However, given the constraints of domestic politics, it is hard to see the US and Europe committing to the much greater spending needed to bridge the yawning financing gap on climate mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage.
Global south states are not just looking for more money. They are also looking to rise in the international order in terms of their national power and influence. Brics is an important sign of their investment in collective action. But most of these states’ efforts are focused on their autonomous rise in what is increasingly a self-help international system.
Thus, a key ask from global south states is for greater respect for their sovereignty.
Two actions from the west, especially from the US, would help here. First, a pullback on punishing secondary sanctions that are illegal under international law and mostly target the global south. Second, a rethink of the obsession among both the left and the right in the west to rewire the global south’s domestic economic systems. This push, whose unstated goals are often protectionist, is increasingly packaged under the label of environmental and labour standards.
Both correctives will go a long way in bridging the divides between the west and the global south.
Sarang Shidore
Director, Global South Programme,
Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Washington, DC, US
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