Southern Actors Research Articles

South–South cooperation: What can we learn from South–South security cooperation?

Abstract To solve contemporary humanitarian, poverty, and climate crises we need to involve new or more actors and come up with innovative forms of collaborations, partnerships, finance, and solutions adapted to local circumstances. This is one of many reasons for growing interest in South–South security cooperation (SSSC). This concluding article seeks to draw parallels between the growing literature on SSSC and the broader body of literature on South–South cooperation to explore how and to what extent they enrich each other and further our understanding of South–South engagements. The article highlights the heterogeneous and relational nature of SSSC and points to a two-speed global South where larger, (geo)politically more potent and richer countries in the global South assist or export models to, or intervene in, smaller, politically and economically less powerful states. It also highlights internal power dynamics in the global South and carves out the complex ways in which traditional, historically informed power relations also affect the actions of Southern actors.

(Re)writing Global Gender Norms: The Role of Southern Actors - A Comment

(Re)writing Global Gender Norms: The Role of Southern Actors - A Comment

Reforming ESG: a European and Global South perspective

Abstract The EU's non-financial reporting (NFR) regulations have significant impacts on Global South stakeholders, firms that must report, actors lower in the value chain, and organisations seeking investment from NFR-compliant firms or institutions. This paper sets forth six proposals to improve the global equity and sustainability implications of the EU's NFR from a Global South perspective. The proposals involve (1) developing regulation cooperatively with the Global South; (2) streamlining reporting to enable the regulations to have real effects and limit incorrect accounting; (3) digitalising reporting through accessible technologies for greater accountability and lower administrative burdens; (4) mandating scope 3 emissions accounting and incentivising related investment; (5) anchoring financial institutions' role in ethical investment and bridging Northern and Southern actors; and (6) strengthening citizen data and sustainability literacy to close the circle of incentives, implementation, and impact.

Smart mix politics: business actors in the formulation of global supply chain regulation

The European Union and other advanced economies are turning to mandatory due diligence regulation to address environmental and human rights risks in their global supply chains. This shift is accompanied by calls for ‘smart regulation’ that combines public legislation with private governance instruments and new supporting measures in the producer countries of the Global South. We study the smart regulation agenda in the case of the European Union Deforestation Regulation. We reveal how its progressive rhetoric masks a conservative undertone as business actors and their civil society partners aim to safeguard their vested interests in the age of public supply chain regulation. However, by tracing their lobbying efforts throughout the policy formulation process, we show how this does not imply en bloc support for voluntary, softer forms of regulation. Moreover, these actors exhibit varying motivations and preferences for involving Southern actors in such a mix. Consequently, rather than forming a cohesive policy coalition, their preferences span from conservative to progressive, resulting in new alliances and divisions in this time of regulatory change. By untangling the complexities of ‘smart mix politics’, this article advances critical research into the evolving role, positioning, and influence of business actors in global supply chain governance.

The Sustainable Cocoa Debate: Key controversies

Abstract The sustainability of agriculture has been a topic of public debate over the last twenty years. The cocoa sector has been at the centre of this debate because of the large demand for chocolate in the Global North, which was one of the first sectors to begin to adopt sustainability standards. In this article, we focus on the actions taken by Northern and Southern actors to try to achieve cocoa sustainability over the past five years. Based on interviews and observations in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and European countries, complemented by document analysis, we map the controversies in the sector. Three issues emerge from our analysis: fair remuneration for producers, child labour and deforestation. We note differences of views between the actors of the North and the South, especially around the question of the fair remuneration of small producers. Emerging concerns are the single ingredient labels and the European regulations on zero imported deforestation and human rights due diligence.

Science diplomacy from the Global South: the case of intergovernmental science organizations

Abstract Intergovernmental science organizations (IGSOs) address many challenges of the 21st century. Several countries of the Global South have joined established IGSOs or have created new ones. Yet we know little about their interests in IGSOs. Our study addresses this blind spot by investigating which objectives Southern actors pursue in IGSOs and under which conditions they are likely to achieve their objectives. Using insights from three strands of literature, we compare four IGSOs with Southern participation: the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, the Square Kilometer Array, and the African Lightsource. We show that countries of the Global South pursue a multitude of political and scientific objectives in IGSOs, ranging from capacity-building to casting off political isolation. Moreover, we demonstrate that Southern countries have varying chances of attaining these objectives, depending on their scientific community, domestic politics, industrial capacities and in some cases geographic location as well as an IGSO’s maturity.

Brazil's Amazon Fund: A “Green Fix” between Offset Pressures and Deforestation Crisis

AbstractEmissions trading and nature‐based solutions, particularly REDD+, have lent themselves to the critical literature on the “socioecological fix” in neoliberal capital accumulation and state regulation. Prone to reversals, land conflict, and leakage, these mechanisms displace the burden of carbon emissions reductions to global South countries, promote new green commodities, and thus increase rather than curb the chance of capital accumulations by big polluters. Studies of existing REDD+ projects register the privatisation of forest management on the one hand and “aidification” on the other, suggesting impediments to fully commodifying forest carbon ranging from social movement resistance to technical issues. This case study of Brazil's national Amazon Fund points to global South protagonism in constructing and negotiating REDD+, challenging Northern and market hegemonies. Progressive Southern actors use the political space of the fix to defend rural communities' territorial rights and demand resources in line with historic responsibilities and climate justice.

Terrain of Contestation: Complicating the Role of Aid in Border Diplomacy between Europe and Morocco

Abstract Theorists of border externalization have portrayed aid in border control cooperation as a bargaining chip that the European Union uses to “buy” the cooperation of countries of “origin” and “transit.” More recent scholarship, instead, has depicted aid as a rent that Southern actors try to extract from Northern donors by capitalizing on the presence of foreign, “undesirable” populations within their own borders. Both explanations overlook the manifold ways countries of “origin” and “transit” maneuver aid in diplomatic relations over border control, thus failing to conceptualize aid beyond the incentive/rent binary. This paper analyses the implementation of three aid-funded projects in the field of migration in Morocco. Building on postcolonial international relations and organizational sociology, I argue that countries of “origin” and “transit” do not always welcome aid in the field of migration with open hands. Rather, they decide to cooperate (or not) with Global North donors and their subcontracting partners depending on how specific aid-funded projects fit into their broader domestic and international foreign policy strategy. I identify a three-tiered typology of engagement (facilitation, negotiation, and obstruction) to argue that aid rather works as a terrain where countries of “origin” and “transit” display, contest, and renegotiate diplomatic relations with Northern partners in situations of power asymmetry.

Out of Balance: Global–Local Tensions in Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships and the Emergence of Rival Initiatives in Producing Countries

Studies on multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) have highlighted the potential for conflict in MSPs, and particularly at the global–local interface has been identified as a key source of tension for partnerships in global value chains. This article uncovers the nature of global–local conflicts, how these conflicts can play out in global MSPs, and how this can lead to the emergence of local competing initiatives. Based on three cases of global MSPs (on palm oil, soy, and ethical trade), the article identifies a set of four global–local tensions, which led to repeated disagreement and contestation in the studied MSPs. As the responses by MSPs to these tensions were insufficient to resolve conflict, local rival initiatives were created in all cases by previously participating Southern actors. These were driven by a combination of strong disagreement over time, coalition-building among Southern actors along national lines, and increased legitimacy of solutions outside the established MSPs.

Everything Stays the Same while Everything Changes

Everything Stays the Same while Everything Changes

Building Legitimacy in an Era of Polycentric Trade: The Case of Transnational Sustainability Governance

Increasing multi-polarity within global politics is understood to be a key contributor to the current legitimacy crisis facing global governance organisations. International relations scholars studying this crisis recognise that a prominent strategy to confront “Northern” dominance within this arena is through the construction of alternative governance institutions. Yet while the de-legitimation of long-established international organisations is widely discussed, there is less focused attention on how alternative institutions seek to gain legitimacy, particularly when they advance in fields where both “Northern” and “Southern” interests matter and beliefs about what constitutes proper governance may differ. This article analyses the field of transnational economic governance where the de-legitimation of pre-existing Northern-oriented governance takes the shape of new initiatives backed by Southern actors. Specifically, we focus on transnational sustainability standards governing trade and production in the global economy. This global governance arena has been transformed by the increasingly polycentric nature of global trade, in which producers governed by sustainability standards cater to rapidly expanding markets in the Global South as well as markets in the Global North. As markets have expanded in emerging economies, transnational sustainability standards must increasingly navigate and respond to actors and interests within different geographies in order to gain and establish legitimacy. The recent development of Southern-oriented sustainability standards (as opposed to established Northern-led standards) reflects the existence of diverging perspectives on the appropriateness of established rules and procedures when it comes to the regulation of trade and production. These standards are seen as partially challenging established standards but may likely seek to establish legitimacy within the wider transnational field of sustainability governance. This article examines the case of a recently established India-based sustainability standard known as Trustea to illustrate how various actors managed design and policy dilemmas to reconcile the preferences and beliefs of various audiences. The case illustrates the significance of both “Northern” and “Southern” audiences to Trustea’s legitimacy-seeking strategies in the context of broader political contestations regarding how production should be governed in relation to sustainable practices.

The shaping of ‘Southern’ sustainability standards in a value chain world: comparative evidence from China and India

Sustainability standards verify that goods and services meet minimum social and environmental norms. They have rapidly gained traction in value chains that connect lead firms with dispersed global suppliers. Historically, such standards have been created by firms, civil society and state regulators in the global North to govern global value chains sourcing goods and services from Southern producers. However, this century has witnessed the emergence of Southern-led sustainability standards. While a few studies have investigated this development, little is yet known about how Southern standards are shaped by public and private actors, or how domestic as well as global value chain dynamics impact their development. We address these gaps through a comparative study of Chinese clothing and Indian tea standards. Drawing upon the concepts of synergistic and antagonistic forms of governance, this article analyses how, when and why Southern actors (public, private and social) choose to develop new sustainability programmes which either emulate or else disrupt established transnational standards within this governance arena. Recognising the agency of Southern actors, but also their constraints to act within this established field, we examine how the sector-specific political economy dynamics of apparel and tea production shape the mechanisms, processes and relations through which Southern sustainability standards are forged in this increasingly multi-polar world of trade and production.

Southern States in International Development Cooperation: From Contestation to Norm Conception

Abstract Why and how do Southern countries conceive norms in the field of international aid and cooperation in an attempt to craft a symbolic regime that challenges Northern-oriented development agendas? To answer this question, this article engages with the literature on the life cycle of norms and goes beyond the earlier concepts of cascade, localisation, subsidiarity, reluctance, rejection, and contestation. As it considers the international–domestic nexus as the main catalyst for norm conception, this paper contributes to the existing literature on norm circulation by providing a more nuanced and context-led analysis of Southern countries’ normative role. In building upon the dialectics between international and domestic politics, this paper refutes the simple norm-taker/norm-maker dyad wherein the former is regarded as the South’s only possible role. Written from a Southern perspective, this paper also explores a range of channels, mechanisms, and platforms that Southern actors mobilise to create and diffuse their development cooperation norms both regionally and globally.

Southern actors and the governance of labour standards in global production networks: The case of South African fruit and wine

Recent studies highlight the emergence of standards, including multi-stakeholder initiatives developed and applied within the global South where supplier firms are usually based. This trend has created a complex ethical terrain whereby transnational standards flow through global production networks and intersect with domestic initiatives at places of production. The paper complements global production network analysis with the concepts of ‘space of flows’ and ‘space of places’ and insights from relational economic geography, to examine how some multi-stakeholder initiatives in the global South can shape the broader governance of labour standards in global production networks. The following questions are addressed: How is the governance of labour standards in global production networks shaped by dynamic spatial interactions between actors? What role have diverse Southern multi-stakeholder initiatives played in influencing the governance of South African fruit and wine? We draw on research conducted over seven years into two standards in South Africa, the Wine and Agriculture Ethical Trade Association and Sustainability Initiative of South Africa. Our analysis shows that these two Southern-based multi-stakeholder initiatives contributed to shaping the broader governance of labour standards through dynamic non-linear waves of interaction over time, involving both collaborative and contested exchanges between actors across space of flows and places. We further argue that despite the development of multi-stakeholder initiatives by Southern actors, commercial power asymmetries in global production networks limit their ability to promote significant improvements for producers and workers.

Liberal peace: from civilising mission to self-doubt

ABSTRACT Focusing on post-Cold War international interventions, this article traces the emergence of a malaise within the liberal universal project. While it is agreed that the liberal peace is in crisis, there is disagreement on the nature of the impasse. For mainstream IR scholars, there is a resistance by actors in the Global South to follow the policy dictates of powerful Western governments and the international organisations they dominate. While this is certainly the case, this article argues that the crisis of the liberal peace is also rooted in the erosion of liberal universal foundations. In addition to liberal norms being rejected by Southern actors, the liberal peace crisis reflects a deeper scepticism on the part of international policy elites regarding the ability of liberal market democracy to resolve a wide range of social, political and economic problems. In addition to being a crisis of legitimacy between the Global North and the Global South, there seems to exist an erosion of liberal universal foundations which is undermining the ability of international policy elites to act purposively in global affairs. This argument is drawn out with reference to post-liberal approaches to peacebuilding which foreground the radical potential of non-liberal forms of agency.

Sustainable commodity governance and the global south

Sustainable commodity governance and the global south

Beyond liberal governance? Resilience as a field of transition

According to governmentality studies, resilience, like any other neoliberal policy framework, reproduces a paternalising dichotomy between capable Northern policy elites and incapable Southern actors. In contrast to this popular governmentality reading, this article argues that resilience thinking is actually geared towards critiquing international policy expertise and the privileged knowledge position of international interveners. Rather than imposing particular policy options from the top down, resilience thinking actively seeks out vernacular, non-liberal forms of governing. However, the drive to critique domineering neoliberal policy initiatives does not usher in a post-liberal paradigm. Instead, this article demonstrates how resilience works as a field of transition on which the retreat from liberal forms of governing is mediated discursively without giving up entirely on the notion of normative, law-based security. These insights are drawn out with reference to crime-related US security interventions in the Americas.

The Southern origins of sustainable development goals: Ideas, actors, aspirations

The Southern origins of sustainable development goals: Ideas, actors, aspirations

Trajectories of Global Solidarity. Fair Trade Activism Since the 1960s: Introduction

AbstractActivists throughout Western Europe joined Southern actors in demanding a reform of global trade during the 1960s. This forum focuses on the subsequent trajectories of fair trade activism: the initiatives which aimed to achieve equitable economic relations between the South and the North. The evolution of this movement is situated within larger debates about social movements since the 1960s. The forum demonstrates the importance of a transnational perspective, particularly the impact of the global South and European integration. It highlights fair trade's broad constituency and the contested development of its goals and repertoire. The movement's trajectories challenge us to reassess how activists attempted to shape a post-colonial world in which consumption had become a predominant fact of life. Regarding this strand of activism as part of crucial post-war developments provides a fresh perspective on the history of transnational civic activism.

Swimming in their own direction: Explaining domestic variation in homegrown sustainability governance for aquaculture in Asia

Swimming in their own direction: Explaining domestic variation in homegrown sustainability governance for aquaculture in Asia