Countries belonging to the Global South (red) and those belonging to the Global North (blue). [Picture: Wikimedia Commons]
The term ‘global south’ has become increasingly popular in global conferences and among activists demanding change. It has also been used to describe many of the countries in the queue of former colonies expressing interest in joining the BRICS group.
The BRICS bloc comprises five countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. As South Africa prepares to host representatives and heads of state from its BRICS peers and their ‘friends’ next week, an increasing number of countries have shown keen interest in joining the group.
Most of them come from the so-called ‘global south’, like Argentina, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“It’s not necessarily a geographical construct,” explains Ashraf Patel, a senior research associate at the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD). “Global South, essentially, would be Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East [and] large parts of the world that were colonised in the last two or three centuries.”
SMread: More than 40 countries want to join BRICS
BRICS and the Global South
In an increasingly polarised geopolitical landscape since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the image of BRICS has evolved from an economic bloc to one with potential political weight.
Some have even gone as far as to suggest it could become a counterweight to US-led Western dominance, as more countries seek to join the group.
“All BRICS nations are part of the global south. All of them have been, in some way, colonised,” said Patel. Many of those wishing to join BRICS, he went on, see potential in areas like trade and infrastructure development.
Furthermore, he says, what makes the BRICS grouping an attractive bloc for developing countries, those in the so-called global south, is talk of a BRICS currency alternative to the US dollar.
“Many of them are commodity exporters. Because of the volatility of the US Dollar in the global system, that is a challenge for these nations. They see a lot of value in a new BRICS currency, for instance, or they see potential for a better deal on infrastructure development through the New Development Bank.”
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Bipolarity
However, Professor Stephan Wolff of the University of Birmingham is not confident that BRICS expansion, particularly in the global south, might position it as a counterweight to US dominance.
Says the professor of international security at the UK university: “Nobody is going to be served if we just have a new faultline in the international system that pits a Global South, led by the self-interests of China and Russia, against a Global West led by the United States”.
Instead, what he anticipates is a “new bipolarity” that divides the world between a US-led camp and another China-led camp. Essentially, he suggests, this would make BRICS and the broader Global South a “tool” in Cold War-like rivalry between Washington and Beijing.
“BRICS, at the moment, looks like it’s probably going to be sucked into the China-led camp but this is not going to give greater weight to the Global South. This is, if anything, simply going to improve China’s position vis-a-vis the United States. BRICS will probably be more of a tool of Chinese foreign policy than it has been so far,” he says.
Expansion is expected to be high on the agenda when the BRICS group and dozens of representatives from nations in the Global South meet at the bloc’s 15th Summit. One thing is for sure: the world’s attention will be trained on the happenings at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg next week.
