Africa–Asia: a tale of worldmaking between alterity and contestation

Abstract

Abstract Is South-South Cooperation providing a path of alterity for Global South states or is it indelibly caught in extractive and exploitative competition over resources and markets? Do Chinese engagements in the Global South increase African agency? Do they compete with or undermine Western-led Liberal International Order norms and standards? There is now a robust scholarship examining the failures and trepidations of the Liberal International Order especially from the vantage point of Global South perspectives. This scholarship sheds light, among other things, on the threat posed to the existing order by emerging powers engaging in South-South cooperation. Yet, despite the anxiety (or excitement) around South-South cooperation as an alternative to the liberal order, the question remains one of substance and concrete outcomes on whether the global order as we know it is being challenged or reinforced by emerging powers. This article argues for the need to look beyond the state as the main focus of analysis and interrogate the mechanisms, processes, and strategies undertaken by a wide array of actors engaging in South-South Cooperation. The article surveys African Affairs scholarship which takes a granular analysis of these dynamics on the ground from the perspectives of enterprises, agents, private business ventures and so on from China, India, and Brazil and how they navigate their engagements with African counterparts.