Fairness also Makes us Grow: The West should play an active role in shaping the power shift towards the Global South
Almut Wieland-Karimi, member of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on Peacebuilding, argues that the West should apprehend the global power shift towards countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America more quickly and more deeply in order to explore common denominators. This could enhance the chance of asserting Western interests and values.
Almut Wieland-Karimi, member of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on Peacebuilding, argues that the West should apprehend the global power shift towards countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America more quickly and more deeply in order to explore common denominators. This could enhance the chance of asserting Western interests and values.
Regional powers such as India, Brazil, South Africa and Saudi Arabia have now gained significant political and economic weight. However, due to the veto powers, the UN Security Council reflects the balance of power after the Second World War. And the structure of the international financial institutions reflects the end of the colonial era – and thus the comparatively low economic power of many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Resistance to this anachronism and the institutionally unrepresented real distribution of power is growing in the Global South.
These new realities require knowledge, attention and differentiation on the part of the West between different states and actors in the Global South. Listening and understanding instead of lecturing – this should be the new modus operandi. What do their developments, ambitions and interests look like? Where are their connecting factors and overlaps with Western interests? How and with which partners can export-oriented Europe position itself sustainably for the future?
Values such as sustainability, environmental awareness and good governance are important to Western countries. Rich industrialized countries are also the main cause of climate change, while people in less developed countries suffer the most from the consequences of the same. It is perceived as a double standard when the main culprits tell the main victims that they should design a cost-intensive green transformation, which can practically result in climate protection at the expense of health care and education in their countries.
One of the leading voices in this controversy is the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Motley, whose country is particularly threatened by climate change; literally doomed. Her Bridgetown Initiative for the Reform of the Global Financial Architecture highlights the unfair distribution of the burden of combating the effects of climate change: rich countries are not taking enough financial and political responsibility. She calls for a reform of the global financial architecture and new mechanisms that would enable resilient financing to tackle the climate and development crisis for poorer countries. Mia Motley is also being considered as a candidate for the post of UN Secretary-General.
The issue of double standards is criticized even more harshly by states and civil societies in the Global South when it comes to the Russia–Ukraine and Israel–Gaza wars. If the West supplies a country like Israel with weapons, which torments the Palestinian people, and at the same time imposes sanctions on Russia, which is doing something similar with Ukraine – then this is incomprehensible from their point of view. Of course, they understand the differences in the specific political and historical circumstances. Nevertheless, the Global South, formerly mostly colonized states, perceives Israel as a colonial power and as a representative of the West in the Middle East. Although many in the Global South have not been concerned with Palestinian welfare for decades, this issue is a source of concentrated anger towards – the now declining – Western supremacy.
At the same time, China has long been available as a partner for countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It maintains the highest number of embassies worldwide and is well positioned with its various initiatives – the New Silk Road, Global Development and Global Security – as well as loans, infrastructure projects and without lecturing on values. An attractive partner. Many countries in the Global South do not want to choose between China and the West, but are seeking or already implementing cooperation with both.
In order to reshape global partnerships, reforms of international institutions are needed first and foremost – such as the expansion of the UN Security Council to include regional powers from the Global South. Or a change in voting rights and lending at financial institutions towards more inclusive representation – see the Bridgetown Initiative. Western humanitarian and development policy commitment is also important for maintaining relations with countries interested in exports.
It is also about fair economic and trade relations. Fair conditions in which countries that have raw materials such as lithium, which is urgently needed for digitalization, are also involved in global supply chains through technology transfer by earning financially from mining and processing in their own countries.
The global power shift is a dynamic process. The faster this is understood and perceived in its various facets, the greater the chance of asserting Western interests – and therefore also values. Or as Benjamin Franklin said, somewhat rephrased: An investment in better understanding brings the best interest.
Originally published in German in Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 28 May 2024.
Dr. Almut Wieland-Karimi is a senior policy advisor. She is a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Seventh Advisory Group for the UN Peacebuilding Fund and of the Advisory Board of Germany’s Stiftung Mercator. She was Executive Director of the Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF) from 2009 till 2022.
Photo by Ave Calvar Martinez
