A cooperative Global South? Brazil, India, and China in multilateral regimes

Abstract

Differently from the Cold War, emerging powers currently have chances to put forward their foreign policy goals. In their rise, countries such as Brazil, India, and China opted to follow similar sets of strategies within multilateral regimes. Ranging from blocking, and free riding, to cooperative behaviors, such states have enhanced their ability to promote topical changes in existing institutional settings. It does not mean, however, that their developing condition will necessarily prompt them to cooperate. As this paper will point out by means of a comparative analysis of the regimes of nuclear non-proliferation, peace and security, and climate change, such countries have more chances to cooperate when their interpretations of the principles and norms that compose a regime converge. Relying on how a country interprets normative frameworks and on the degree of membership a state has in a regime, this article challenges the notion that these three leaders of the so-called Global South would be relying on an all-encompassing cooperative multilateral behavior.