Decryption

The "Global South", an imperfect ideological concept

Cuba is hosting an extraordinary summit of the G77+China starting this Friday, attended by a hundred countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America. These countries are grouped under the label of "Global South", a vague name whose relevance is sometimes criticized.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel (L) and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh in Havana on September 14, 2023. AP - Ramon Espinosa

By: Caroline Renaux Follow

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One hundred and thirty-four countries spread over three continents, and yet united in Cuba under a single name: "Global South". A concept that brings together Argentina, Benin and Senegal as well as China, Brazil and India. 
What do they have in common? 
  • "An extra-Western dimension," says Delphine Allès, professor of political science and vice-president of Inalco. 
  • "There is a form of frustration with the functioning of the governing bodies of the international order."

From the "Third World" to the "Global South"

Before the term "Global South" was imposed, there was already the term "Third World". 
  • Theorized by demographer and economist Alfred Sauvy in 1952, the Third World referred to these so-called "non-aligned" countries, which belonged neither to the Western nor to the Eastern bloc. 
  • "To understand the world, we usually categorize it and subdivide it into coherent sets," explains Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary, a professor at the University of Grenoble-Alpes and a specialist in political geography. 
  • "For a long time, this operation was the monopoly of the richest and most powerful countries, which led them to speak of the Third World to designate all the poorest and least developed countries.
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A division that will not withstand the fall of the Berlin Wall, immediately replaced by that between "developed countries" and "developing countries", then by that between North and South. The term "Global South" first appeared in 1969 in the liberal Catholic journal Commonweal Magazine. Carl Oglesby, one of the leading figures in the American student movement opposing the Vietnam War, wrote: "Hundreds of years of U.S. domination of the Global South have converged to produce an intolerable social order."

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Now, on maps, a line interferes between Mexico and the United States, separates Africa from Europe, encompasses the Middle East to the south (except Turkey), then runs under Kazakhstan and Russia before diving to avoid South Korea, Japan and Taiwan as well as Australia and New Zealand.
However, while this North/South divide continues to be used, its use remains highly contested among researchers. 
  • "Finally, the South refers to a group of countries that is very heterogeneous," says Delphine Allès. Southern hemisphere countries such as Australia are excluded, while China, the world's second-largest economy with a GDP of $18 trillion in 000, is among them. 
  • A set with "variable geometry" according to the researcher, which does not present an economic, historical, geographical or even political unit.

Imperfect categorization

For Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary, who prefers to speak of "Norths" and "Souths" in the plural, this term has above all a "constructed and ideological" dimension and masks internal differences. "If we simply look at economic indicators, we miss a range of nuances about the distribution of wealth and the possibilities of geopolitical alliances," she said.

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The Global South is struggling to have political weight because its positions are very different, especially on climate and development issues," adds Delphine Allès. 
  • While China is trying to adopt a leadership posture vis-à-vis Brazil or Indonesia, India claims to be "multi-aligned" and maintains cordial relations with both the United States and Russia. 
  • "There are a lot of states that are in a secondary position and cannot share their aspirations on the international political scene," says the professor.

A "reference to permanent otherness"

If this division of the world persists despite political ambitions and contrasting economic trajectories, it is because it is an "ideological categorization," according to Françoise Dufour, a doctor of language science and author of the article Saying "the South": When to Name the Other categorizes the world. "These are nominative forms that are euphemisms, not to say the dominance that exists between North and South. It's not just semantics," she says. "The discursive practices that distinguish the North from the South are related to political, economic, cultural practices... There is a reference to permanent otherness, the North is the development reference towards which countries are supposed to tend.
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Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary speaks of a "performative notion", which would allow the dominant countries of the North to continue to assert and justify their power, especially when it comes to their preponderant role in the United Nations Security Council. In contrast, forming a "Global South" on the occasion of the G77+China in Cuba would allow these countries to give themselves more political weight. "When you claim leadership on the international scene, it's obviously more interesting to present yourself as representative of a group of 134 countries," says Delphine Allès. Havana, which has held the presidency of the G77 since January, called for the "unity" of its members to fight against the "petty interests of those who want to keep the current unjust economic order unchanged."