The Future Of North South Relations

This work was written by members of the Forward Studies Unit of the EC in response to the perceived need for the Community to consider Europe in the global international context. It discusses the changes that have, and are still taking place in north-south relations, as well as development prospects, a possible global strategy and a European strategy for sustainable economic and social development.

Presents opposing opinions on such questions concerning the Third World as why it is poor, how it can achieve economic development, and what forms of government would best serve its needs.

South-South cooperation is becoming ever more important to states, policy-makers and academics. Many Northern states, international agencies and NGOs are promoting South-South partnerships as a means of ‘sharing the burden’ in funding and undertaking development, assistance and protection activities, often in response to increased political and financial pressures on their own aid budgets. However, the mainstreaming of Southern-led initiatives by UN agencies and Northern states is paradoxical in many ways, especially because the development of a South-South cooperation paradigm was originally conceptualised as a necessary way to overcome the exploitative nature of North-South relations in the era of decolonisation. This handbook critically explores diverse ways of defining ‘the South’ and of conceptualising and engaging with ‘South-South relations.’ Through 30 state-of-the-art reviews of key academic and policy debates, the handbook evaluates past, present and future opportunities and challenges of South-South cooperation, and lays out research agendas for the next 5-10 years. The book covers key models of cooperation (including internationalism, Pan-Arabism and Pan-Africanism), diverse modes of South-South connection, exchange and support (including South-South aid, transnational activism, and migration), and responses to displacement, violence and conflict (including Southern-led humanitarianism, peace-building and conflict resolution). In so doing, the handbook reflects on decolonial, postcolonial and anticolonial theories and methodologies, exploring urgent questions regarding the nature and implications of conducting research in and about the global South, and of applying a ‘Southern lens’ to a wide range of encounters, processes and dynamics across the global South and global North alike. This handbook will be of great interest to scholars and post-graduate students in anthropology, area studies, cultural studies, development studies, history, geography, international relations, politics, postcolonial studies and sociology.

This work was written by members of the Forward Studies Unit of the EC in response to the perceived need for the Community to consider Europe in the global international context. It discusses the changes that have, and are still taking place in north-south relations, as well as development prospects, a possible global strategy and a European strategy for sustainable economic and social development.

Throughout the post-World War II era, North-South negotiations have failed to provide Southern states with many of the trade and aid benefits that they sought. The concerns of the Southern and Northern states have been well documented in the enormous literature on North-South relations. Various methodologies and alternative world views have yielded alternative explanations for the dilemmas of Northern and Southern states as they have negotiated over time in the international political-economy system. Most of this literature, we believe, does not acknowledge the rare cases where important gains by Southern states were won. Although the gains made by Southern states in a small set of bargaining cases with Northern representatives are modest when viewed in light of grand historical trends, we believe that these small advances by Southern states have been, and will continue to be important to citizens in Southern countries. Moreover, as the current international political economy undergoes enormous change, we believe it is important to analyze which trends of the future may most benefit Southern negotiators as they bargain with Northern representatives. Below, we review the prominent approaches to North-South relations and situate this paper in the vast body of North-South literature. We identify and analyze the small set of cases in which Southern states experienced success in bargaining with Northern states in the post World War period. Each of these cases shares a set of common bargaining conditions under which successful outcomes for Southern states were achieved. In this chapter, we identify the conditions under which Southern states were able to bargain successfully with Northern states. Then, we offer a theory of the conditions under which Southern states do best when bargaining with Northern representatives. Finally, we demonstrate how likely changes in the international political economy of the 1990s will influence bargaining outcomes in future North-South relations. We argue that while Northern policy makers may favor the continuation of a multilateral international economic order, Southern states will be more successful in their negotiations with Northern states in the 1990s under an international system characterized by economic blocs than one which is not.

The series is written for the European Commission by international subject experts chiefly located at the Commission's Forward Studies Unit. Titles within the series reflect a European view of the changing world order of today and will be of particular interest to students, scholars and professionals active in European Studies and International Relations. A timely response to the perceived need for the European Union to consider Europe in the global context and the increasingly prominent role that post-Cold War Europe is taking in world affairs. The book discusses past and current changes in North-South relations alongside development prospects, interdependencies and potential risks in the future.