South–South cohesiveness versus South–South rhetoric: Brazil and Africa at the UN General Assembly

Abstract

South-South relations have regained widespread interest in recent years, together with increasingly visible stances on international stages. Brazil's interactions with the African continent, in particular, came to epitomise such a perception while sustaining an expectation of mutual alignment in several global issues. However, these assumptions still lack empirical corroboration. Drawing on United Nations General Assembly voting data for the 1991-2013 timeframe, this article questions a supposed South-South solidarity at the multilateral institution with the largest global representation and identifies key thematic axes that incite greater collective stances. The analysis further sheds light on whether or not a common SouthSouth agenda has emerged over time.

Go Global or Go Home: Comparing the Regional vs. Global Engagement of Brazil and South Africa at the UN General Assembly

“…Scholarship on regionalism, regional powers and the UN has focused on varied aspects of this interplay, such as regional cohesion (Montenegro and Mesquita 2017), representation (Lai and Lefler 2017) and actorness (Seabra and Sanches 2019). Few studies, however, have paid close attention to the salience of regional themes on UN output, and even less resorted to metrics apart from roll-call votes.…”

“…Yet, previous work on Brazil and South Africa's profile at the UNGA has relied solely on data from voting records. Recent studies have focused on Brazil-US relations (Amorim Neto 2012), on Brazil-Africa connections as tokens of South-South solidarity (Seabra and Sanches 2019), the consistency of South Africa's track-record at the UNGA with its major foreign policy tenets (Graham 2016), or the performance of both states in contrast to other 20 BRICS countries in fostering regional cohesion (Montenegro and Mesquita 2017). No effort has been made so far towards exploring the possibilities that co-sponsorship of drafts at the UNGA entail.…”

Introduction: Turnaround and Let-Down – Making Sense of Brazil and Africa after the Surge

“…The third thread holds that Brazil's involvement in Africa was part of a long-term diplomatic commitment to the continent, one that is driven by its aim of balancing Western influence by forging cooperation and partnerships with African governments in the name of South-South solidarity (e.g. Barbosa et al 2009;Seabra & Sanches 2019;Seibert & Visentini 2019). Coalitions formed with the purpose of reforming the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), congregating votes at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) or in advancing innovative trade frameworks that were brought forward as a way to not only ensure Africa's support for Brazilian initiatives but also to guarantee that their interests would be accounted for, thus breaking the restrictions of most post-World War II institutions.…”