Abstract
What are the human development opportunities and challenges for small states in a multi-polar world? An answer to this question must consider human development strategies at large, the constraints imposed by neoliberal globalism and better practice in recent times. Small states have particular vulnerabilities but may also benefit from realignments within new regional blocs. There are already a number of relevant and important “post Washington Consensus” themes and lessons from the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) groupings. These have much to do with redefined human development policies and less to do with extraction of natural resources. The best examples of human development come from those which are relatively resource poor but which have invested heavily in human capacity. This article considers the strategic opportunities and challenges for small states within the new forms of integration presented by an emerging multi-polar world with its new regional blocs. Best practice has come from sustained and focussed human capacity building, while the range of possible integration strategies in the new global environment could be characterised as passive integration, avoiding capture, counter-leverage and regional realignment, within and between the emerging blocs.
Highlights
The human development opportunities and challenges for small states have shifted with the recent growth of strong, independent regional and what we might call post-globalist organisations
Many international development reports (e.g., Bass and Dalal-Clayton 1995; Krausmann, Richter, and Eisenmenger 2014; UN-OHRLLS 2011) focus on sustainable resource use yet the relevant and important post-globalist or “post Washington Consensus” themes and lessons have more to do with strengthened human capacity building, and less to do with simple extractivism
There is a great deal of literature both predicting and advocating greater international multi-polarity, in one author’s words, a shift towards “keeping the field free of an overlord” (Hiro 2010, 12). The significance of this shift for small states is that the emerging environment can provide opportunities to refocus on development strategy and its necessary human development elements
Summary
The unipolar world that seemed to emerge after the collapse of the Soviet Union helped reinforce the World Bank “structural adjustment” programmes and limited options for independent development. If the ALBA was Latin America’s left block, the UNASUR (created in 2008) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC, created in 2011) were the broader regional groupings, which built on the region’s common history, crossing political lines Chávez drove all these new alliances with his political will and Venezuela’s weight in natural resources (Anderson 2014a). There is a great deal of literature both predicting and advocating greater international multi-polarity, in one author’s words, a shift towards “keeping the field free of an overlord” (Hiro 2010, 12) The significance of this shift for small states is that the emerging environment can provide opportunities to refocus on development strategy and its necessary human development elements. Parallel ideas and experience allow small states to reflect on the important role of the state in development, alongside the new international engagement and integration opportunities
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