India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) – a new geography of trade and technology cooperation?

Abstract

Abstract:The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum, was established in 2003, as a political alliance of three likeminded, democratic, developing countries in order to counterbalance the traditional North-South power asymmetry. The vision of the political leaders, however, goes beyond a lose political union, and aspires South-South cooperation in trade, science and technology. The paper explores what the available evidence suggests regarding the possible depth and outreach of the project.

Emerging economies in business news: Repositioning leaders in the Global South

“…Trade, technology and development together formed an important marker of the new middle power status (Chevallier et al, 2008), and figured in at least 8 of the 16 stories in FE . The recession of 2008 provided an opportunity for IBSA members to renew commitments to invest in capital-intensive initiatives as part of the trade and development agenda among the three countries, especially in areas that are most often associated with the Global North.…”

“…These countries have been cast as emerging economies, and as such, this status denotes a significant rise in their state of development. Scholars now position IBSA nations as 'new middle powers', a status that recasts the national brand for each of the IBSA member countries (Andrade et al, 2010;Chevallier et al, 2008;Flemes, 2007Flemes, , 2009Vieira and Alden, 2011). IBSA is not to be confused with BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) since both consortia have separate agendas, and IBSA predates the BRICS' complete formation by 7 years (Stuenkel, 2015).…”