The Rebirth of the Global South: Geopolitics, Imageries and Developmental Realities

This article seeks to evaluate the prospects for a liberal world order. Sceptical visions of renewed conflict and major terrorist threat are rejected. But this does not pave the way for a peaceful, cooperative liberal order in any simple way. Liberal progress also produces illiberal counter-reactions, and strong political forces are pursuing a liberal order with elements that are essentially illiberal. There has been much too little debate about the substantial contents of a liberal world order. The article identifies two major currents in liberalism, Restraint and Imposition. Each is problematic and a stable liberal world order will have to find a course which avoids the pitfalls of these extremes.

South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) is not a new issue in international development cooperation. South-South Cooperation itself has a long history and has contributed to the international development half a century. Indonesia itself actively involved in SSTC since the Asian-African Conference (AAC), in 1955, this conference became the starting point of a political movement of the joint development of third world countries to carry out international cooperation. Strengthening the role of Indonesia in SSTC significantly more noticeable with the inclusion of Indonesia as a G20 member, and the change of economic status Indonesia become "Middle Income Country", the position of Indonesia today not only as a recipient country but also as a provider. This research was to find out how Indonesia's membership in G20 could effect on Indonesia's role in South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) itself. Besides this paper aims to identify obstacles and challenges in implementing SSTC in Indonesia, as well as how the prospect of Indonesia after the Single Agency established within the framework of SSTC. Hopefully, this research can be beneficial to all parties, especially for students.

The world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, and its evolution is accelerating. From the perspective of international relations, the international pattern has taken on the following new features: First, the international balance of power has changed. The main manifestations are: the decline of the strength of the western traditional powers; the collective rise of emerging economies; Sino-US relations have entered a period of strategic competition; Second, the Western-dominated international cooperation and global governance are in a lot of difficulties. Although the power politics model is changing to the global governance model, the Western-dominated international economic and trade cooperation, global economic governance, global climate governance, public health, cultural governance and other fields are in trouble. The fundamental reason is the concern of relative gains in the economic field. Political hegemony, “anti-globalization”, “anti-establishment” trend of thought, “power politics resurgence”; In culture level, “culture conflict theory” is advocated. At a time when international cooperation and global governance are stuck in a real dilemma and unable to find effective solutions to global issues, the era calls on emerging economies to step onto the world stage and actively participate in international cooperation to solve common crises facing the world. South-south cooperation among developing countries is leading a new paradigm of international cooperation. As the largest developing country in the world, China offers its solutions and wisdom in international cooperation and global governance.

The Chinese contribution to global Internet governance debate has been studied mainly by focusing on the governmental perspective. This study was aimed to provide a broader view by analyzing the participation of Chinese academics and civil society in two of the most important Internet governance international organizations: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Based on historical material and in-depth interviews conducted in Geneva and Beijing, the findings show the evolution of Chinese Internet governance at the global level and suggest the following: first, the Chinese agents in the global debate on Internet governance support a multi-stakeholder perspective; second, although seldom engaged in the decision-making process, the Chinese agents involved in the global governance identify ITU as the more credible international organization in coordinating global governance; third, the Chinese agents have an ambivalent approach to Chinese participation both in ITU and ICANN. Finally, the findings of the study reported in this article contest the understanding that Chinese Internet governance is isolationist in nature.

The Chinese contribution to global Internet governance debate has been studied mainly by focusing on the governmental perspective. This study was aimed to provide a broader view by analyzing the participation of Chinese academics and civil society in two of the most important Internet governance international organizations: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Based on historical material and in-depth interviews conducted in Geneva and Beijing, the findings show the evolution of Chinese Internet governance at the global level and suggest the following: first, the Chinese agents in the global debate on Internet governance support a multi-stakeholder perspective; second, although seldom engaged in the decision-making process, the Chinese agents involved in the global governance identify ITU as the more credible international organization in coordinating global governance; third, the Chinese agents have an ambivalent approach to Chinese participation both in ITU and ICANN. Finally, the findings of the study reported in this article contest the understanding that Chinese Internet governance is isolationist in nature.

The South–South Cooperation (SSC) strategy advocates that Global South states cooperate within international organizations to gain bargaining leverage and advance their interests in global governance. The SSC agenda advances a multipolar international system, multilateral negotiations, and mutual economic development, especially for less developed states. This research examines qualitative and quantitative documentation of SSC leadership of Brazil and India in the World Trade Organization’s Dispute Settlement Body. The analysis uses case studies of each actor’s profile in trade disputes and cross-tabulations of their success, both individually and collectively against Global North states. The findings support the proposition that Global South states have relatively high rates of success, especially when they collaborate in disputes against the Global North. This research extends the institutional analysis of SSC to the Dispute Settlement Body as an arena for rule-based decision making and adds a qualitative analysis of the SSC leadership and a quantitative analysis of categorical data of trade disputes. The conclusion summarizes the findings and suggests areas for future research.

The Crisis of World Order and the Constitutive Regime of the International System

A much-discussed theme in international relations is how emerging powers will engage with the declining liberal world order and its various governance regimes. This article examines the engagement of emergent powers with the regime of “peacebuilding.” Empirically, it examines the interaction between India and China, with liberal peacebuilding projects in the peace processes of Nepal and Myanmar respectively. Departing from the theory that emergent powers either displace, or converge with, the liberal world order, this article argues that emergent powers have a “negotiated coexistence” with liberal peacebuilders. Despite competing motivations, this “coexistence” of liberal peacebuilders and emergent powers is negotiated, first, by the agency of conflict-affected states, who invoke plural forms of international engagement, to gain strategic advantage, and secondly, by limited interaction between the two, given the differences in their priorities and modalities of engagement. The differences ensure that emergent powers operate in parallel, yet distinctly, from peacebuilders, rarely crossing each other's path. This limited interaction not only prevents this coexistence from degenerating into instances of potential contestation but also inhibits cooperation. Yet, when emergent powers view their economic and strategic interests being threatened by norms and practices of liberal peacebuilding projects, few instances of contestation emerge.

This article – and the special issue it introduces – contributes to the expanding scholarly literature on the global governance of education, with a particular focus on its future-oriented and ‘promissory’ dimension. Inspired by Beckert’s (2020) concept of ‘promissory’ legitimacy, a key contribution of this special issue is to critically analyse past and contemporary promissory narratives of the major international organisations and other global actors concerning the future of education. We focus on three overarching themes that emerge from the contributions to this special issue: Problems of legitimacy in the global governance of education; a shift towards multistakeholderism, which we explore through the lens of ‘the neuro-affective turn’; the use of crisis narratives as an instrument of global governance, and geopolitical shifts and the decline of the liberal world order.

La cooperación Sur-Sur se ha consolidado como una modalidad complementaria a la tradicional cooperación Norte-Sur que, en la práctica, se ha materializado como un instrumento para el intercambio de ideas, políticas y experiencias, que se ejecuta entre países en desarrollo que tienen, o creen tener, elementos políticos, históricos y socioeconómicos afines. Sus orígenes se remontan a la década de los cincuenta, y desde entonces, la estructura ideológica que le ha dado forma ha estado influenciada por ideas y hechos que se interrelacionan a partir de distintas narrativas construidas por los estados, subrayando intereses comunes sobre el lugar que ocupan dentro de la arquitectura de la cooperación al desarrollo. A lo largo del siglo XXI, dicha modalidad ha ido ganando mayores espacios de concertación y negociación como un instrumento político de los países en desarrollo que se sustenta en los principios de horizontalidad, solidaridad, reciprocidad e independencia. Desde un enfoque regional, América Latina, por ejemplo, ha favorecido la creación de instrumentos técnicos que, desde la conceptualización hasta el registro de datos, han llevado a la creación de estructuras normativas para la ejecución de la cooperación Sur-Sur. En esa línea argumentativa, desde un enfoque social constructivista de difusión de ideas, normas y prácticas, este artículo analiza de manera descriptiva y explicativa cómo la región ha fortalecido la práctica de la cooperación Sur-Sur a partir de la identificación de problemáticas comunes y discursos encaminados a definirla desde las estructuras ideacionales. El objetivo de este artículo es entender el proceso de formación de la gobernanza regional de la cooperación Sur-Sur en América Latina, para lo cual, se analiza el rol de la Secretaria General Iberoamericana desde cuya institucionalidad, los países de la región fortalecen la difusión de prácticas e ideas que podrían significar avances para la construcción de una gobernanza global de la cooperación Sur-Sur.

Global Governance and Supporting Renewable Energy Development in the South

Indonesia’s 2020 New Paradigm Of Collaborative Strategic Outlook In The South-South Cooperation (SSC) as The Bridge-Builder For The Post-Pandemic Development

During the first decade of the 21st century, the international system underwent a process of transformation in which emerging actors gained prominence, promoting a new stage that enabled the resurgence of South–South cooperation (SSC). The field of international relations approached this phenomenon mainly through studies of international development cooperation, but also from a foreign policy analysis approach. Although at the beginning of the century attention was focused especially on emerging countries like China, India, Brazil, and South Africa, among others, the consolidation of SSC between middle-income countries, particularly in Latin America, gave rise to a broad debate on the distinct identities of the Southern partners. Considering the substantial literature produced, and emphasizing a perspective rooted in Latin America, SSC is analyzed with the goals of contributing to understand SSC from its conceptual formulation, link SSC to foreign policy considerations, and, finally, understand how SSC has affected the International Development Cooperation System.

A recent wave of scholarship attests that the liberal world order is under threat. Although there is disagreement about the underlying reasons for this diagnosis, there are few attempts to further our understanding of how the liberal order can be reinvigorated. This paper probes the potential of blockchain technology to promote international cooperation. Blockchain technology is a data structure that enables global governance stakeholders to establish decentralized governance systems which provide high-powered incentives for enhanced cooperation. By outlining the contours of a blockchain-based global governance system for climate policy, the paper illustrates that blockchain technology holds theoretical promise to foster cooperation in three ways: leveraging new sources of information through blockchain-based prediction markets; allaying coordinating problems through reducing the cost of transactions for side payments; and allowing states and other global governance actors to make more credible commitments given guaranteed execution of blockchain-enabled smart contracts. By empowering local knowledge holders and non-state actors that traditionally lacked the means to coordinate efforts to influence global politics, blockchain technology also promises to advance an international order based on liberal values. In actuality, however, emerging blockchain-based global governance systems will fall short of the libertarian ideal of ‘fully-automated liberalism’ as their design and operation will remain under the shadow of power.

The liberal world order is showing signs of disarray: two recent catastrophes in adjoining parts of the world (the Middle East and South Caucasus) have opened the fissures of the international governance gap; and the continuing ramifications of COVID-19 have already paralysed the world. On top of this post-pandemic disquietude, multiple conflicts this year are either in danger of precipitating or wars have already re-ignited over long-standing continuing conflicts, highlighting the failure of international governance institutions, including the UN system. In recent years, one of the central responses to the multilateral failures at multiple levels has been for states to form ‘narrower’ and ‘more flexible’ frameworks called ‘minilaterals’. Thus minilateralism has been contrasted through the lens of receding multilateralism, which has been a long-standing hallmark of the American-led liberal international order. This paper examines how far global governance would be dependent on minilateralism by exploring this growing trend in the Indo-Pacific and explores how minilateralism models can enhance international governance structures. This paper also attempts to analyse whether minilateralism is a product of regional fragmentation, or whether it can reinvigorate the comatose multilateralism. Then this paper posits that minilateralism helps rejig the chaotic multipolar order and thus re-invent global governance.