The politics of South-South Cooperation

Elgar Encyclopedia of Development, 2023

This entry reviews South-South cooperation (SSC) as a contested concept and social practice. A periodisation of SSC post-1945, derived from historical turning points, provides an analytical framework specifically for identifying conceptual shifts in the global context: Concertation (1945–1981); Containment (1981–1995); and Cooptation vs Confrontation (1995–present). On this basis, major controversies are explored.

Austral: Brazilian Journal of Strategy & International Relations, 2012

2020

The years after World War II have held numerous critical global occurrences for the global North and South, striking among them is the North-South dialogue which started as a battle by third world nations for a New International Economic Order (NIEO). Quite a long while down the line, various dialogues existed among countries of the developing South and the developed North. However, increasing inequalities between the North and third world countries have endlessly brought up issues regardless of whether these dialogues have accomplished the reason for which they were built up. Thehypothetically alternative model, 'South–South cooperation' has been recognized as an important cooperation modality, but encounters contradictions that are not too different from those of its North–South counterpart. Providers of the South- South cooperation are highly heterogeneous in terms of policies, institutional arrangements, and engagement with international forums and initiatives. This pape...

International Studies, 2022

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.

2011

What do we talk when we talk about South-South Cooperation? The construction of a concept from empirical basis Thirty two years from the Buenos Aires Declaration, South-South Cooperation (SSC) has acquired an increasingly protagonist role in the debates on International Cooperation. Given this scenario, SSC presents itself as a tool of solidarity that could facilitate the construction of capacities in developing countries, relaxing the traditional North-South Cooperation (NSC) model and allowing the appropriation of reforms by recipient countries. This paper points out that these conceptualizations present some weaknesses to better understand the distinctive nature of SSC and its potential to improve the effectiveness of international cooperation. While the political definitions of SSC may have some value, it still remains necessary to reach a higher level in their conceptualization. To attain this objective, the research works on two fields. The first one is the construction of the...

2012

The traditional perception on development in industrialised countries has been one centred on the notion of assistance. Rich nations (“the North”) can accompany and support the development efforts of poorer nations (“the South”). The quest has been to find how to best provide such support. Which programmes and policies would be most effective? How to ensure sustainability of the effort and the outcomes? How to best engage developing countries to this endeavour?

From military assistance to financial and humanitarian aid, countries in the global south have for long been holding hands in their bid to enhance the living standards of their people. Some, being more advanced and developed than their counterparts in the same sphere, have been the chief participants in championing the phenomenon: South-South Cooperation (herein referred to as SSC). These include the BRICS, standing for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, (though Russia is not included as a developing country) the rest of whom both cumulatively and individually play very pivotal roles in the South-South Cooperation set up. Despite being in existence for almost slightly more than half a century, the Africa-South America cooperation (ASA coop) (as the SSC is at times called), it only started to influence the development field in the late 1990s. This being the case, as compared to the north-south cooperation, the SSC is still an infant. Attesting to and confirming this is the little documented evidence in the way of significant development and impact on people's lives it has achieved. This factor notwithstanding however, the SSC has so far left quite a mark on the lives of many in the third world countries and is likely to cement its place in the world system with time. This paper seeks to explore and give more insight on the contribution this kind of cooperation has had in bettering the lives of citizens living in the so called developing countries.

IDS Bulletin, 2013

This article examines how neoliberal reforms mediate and influence relationships between emergent powers and African nations centred on agricultural development. It investigates the impact of South-South relations on the nature of development and technical cooperation, aid and investment, and on the configuration of relations between states, farmers and the private sector. It examines the extent to which the experiences of China and Brazil in developing their agriculture result in qualitatively new paradigms for agricultural development, and whether they create new openings for a redefinition of development policy and practice. Moreover, the article assesses whether South-South development cooperation merely reinforces the drive to capital accumulation unleashed by global economic liberalisation, reflecting strategies by emergent powers to acquire new markets for agricultural technology, inputs, services and new sources of raw materials. In conclusion, the article questions the extent to which alternative paradigms for development cooperation can be created within the institutional framework created by neoliberal reform.

South-South cooperation (SSC) elucidates the cooperation made by developing countries to find mutual solutions for common constraints faced by development of the state. Connected by likenesses in their development settings and challenges, the nations of the South have been ever more vigorous in cooperating with each other in terms knowledge sharing, technology exchange, and common programme formation and collective action initiation. Consequently, SSC aims to stimulate self-reliance among the countries of global south and to reinforce their economic relationships. This paper analyses the performance of various countries as a participant in the south-south cooperation and makes an investigation into the challenges faced by them in the due course. Budgets of southern contributors have been investigated and analysis has been made to evaluate the contributions made by various countries to other developing economies. It has also been taken into account that how much has been the impact of the donor participant on the receiving country’s economy. The study concludes the findings in form of the challenges faced by south-south cooperation, the most predominant of which emerges due to the lack of a universally accepted definition of the term south-south cooperation. The paper also makes suggestions to the contributors to overcome those challenges.

a department of international relations, School of Global Studies, university of Sussex, uK; b department of Political and economic Studies, university of helsinki, Finland