Today at WPR, we’re covering government-formation talks in the Netherlands and Liberia’s democracy.
But first, we’re taking this week to highlight the major trends in global affairs that shaped 2023—and which will likely shape 2024. So far, we’ve looked at the global security order, the global economic order and immigration.
Global South: So far this week, we’ve focused mainly on trends shaping and shaped by the world’s major powers. But bubbling under the surface of those trends is how they are inextricably linked with what is going on in “the rest of the world.”
Even the term we use to denote the world beyond the West—the Global South—is still contested by many. The Global South’s indeterminate and in some ways contradictory geographical boundaries makes it hard to define, while the heterogeneous political interests and economic development of the states comprising it make it hard to speak about—and to speak for.
But the concept has become increasingly normalized and acknowledged by observers of global affairs, with that process accelerating over the past year. The Global South is now a fixture of the language and landscape of international politics.
(Read more: The ‘Global South’ Is Real. Deal With It by Aude Darnal)
Of course, the Global North and Global South’s fates and prospects have always been inextricably linked, both historically and in the contemporary world, but the Global North has often failed to understand that. The power differential between the two has meant that the effects of policy decisions made in the Global North have had a disproportionate effect on the Global South, whether with regard to the climate crisis, private sector investment, aid distribution and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.
This past year illustrated how significantly the dynamic between the Global North and Global South has changed. The shift began a few years ago, spurred on by the increased urgency of the Global South’s challenges as well as social movements in the U.S. and Europe that have pushed Western governments to view lower- and middle-income states differently. Observers in the media, too, began covering the Global South more frequently and on different terms.
But the biggest shift occurred beginning in February 2022, as the global reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine served as a wake-up call for the West, which was initially surprised by the at times ambivalent response among some Global South countries to Russia’s aggression.
As a result, 2023 has been defined by the West’s newfound recognition of the Global South’s importance for its own interests as well as by the difference that countries in the Global South have made in international politics, collectively and individually. That could be seen in the attention paid to this year’s BRICS Summit, at which the group expanded to include six more non-Western powers. It could be seen, too, at the G-20 Summit, where the African Union was invited to join the group and India flexed its growing foreign policy clout.
This past year has also illustrated how Global South countries are successfully navigating the shifting global order to advance their own interests. Multi-alignment foreign policies have become the norm rather than the exception, as Global South countries become savvy about exploiting great power competition to their advantage.
To be sure, the power differential between the Global North and Global South is not disappearing anytime soon, and there are still plenty of blind spots in the Global North’s policies toward the rest of the world. But 2023 cemented the Global South—as a term, as a concept and as a force—in international politics. It will continue to shape the global order in 2024 and beyond.
Wilders Has the Votes to Lead the Netherlands, but Not the Trust
In the Netherlands, negotiations to form a new government following the country’s shock elections in November are going into quiet mode, as Geert Wilders, the far-right provocateur who went from fringe figure to would-be prime minister, tries to cobble together a governing coalition.
A few scenarios look possible, columnist Frida Ghitis writes. At the moment, the most likely is a weak and unstable government led by Wilders.
Liberia’s Democracy Just Dodged a Bullet
On Nov. 17, Liberian President George Weah astonished many observers both at home and abroad by conceding defeat to opposition candidate Joseph Boakai in the second round of the country’s presidential election.
A few days after his concession, Weah made a striking admission, intimating that his allies in the ruling coalition had wanted him to remain in office by force but that he had refused in order to avoid another bout of violence and civil war in Liberia.
As Jacien Carr writes, Weah’s actions stand in stark contrast to recent political developments elsewhere in West Africa, which has seen numerous coups in recent years.
We want to hear your take on the issues we cover. We’ll select one person from those who answer the question below to receive a free one-month extension of their WPR subscription.
This week’s question: Do you think the West’s shift toward stricter immigration policies and enforcement is the most effective response?
Ireland will launch legal action against the U.K. over legislation that will offer amnesty for atrocities committed during the violent period known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, as well as ban inquiries into those offenses beginning in May 2024.
The law, officially titled the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, passed in September despite opposition from Dublin and all of Northern Ireland’s main political parties. The act is ostensibly designed to “draw a line under the Troubles,” but as Jonathan Gorvett wrote last year, opponents argue it threatens the very basis of Northern Ireland’s hard-won peace, the Good Friday Agreement.
Nicaragua arrested another Catholic bishop on Wednesday, the second to be detained in recent years, Reuters reports. Bishop Isidro Mora was reportedly arrested for the crime of praying for his fellow detained bishop, Rolando Alvarez.
Alvarez—Nicaragua’s most prominent critic of President Daniel Ortega—was detained last year as part of a broader crackdown on the Catholic Church, one of the last remaining threats to Ortega’s dictatorial power in the deeply Catholic country, as Frida Ghitis and Ryan C. Berg have each written about:
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said yesterday that the country will maintain military pressure on the Philippines amid a South China Sea dispute. Read Richard Javad Heydarian’s briefing on the standoff between the two countries.
The top court in Europe ruled that the soccer governing bodies UEFA and FIFA breached competition law by attempting to block the breakaway European Super League. Read more about the proposed league—and the role that an influx of Gulf money played in its launch, crash and burn—in this article by Michael Wahid Hanna from 2021.
