South-South relations and the English School of International Relations: Chinese and Brazilian ideas and involvement in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Rev. Bras. polít. Int. 57 (special edition): 138-156 [2014] Since at least the beginning of the Great Recession there has been considerable scholarly attention given to South-South relations. Although the deepening relations between developing countries is, in many ways, a continuation of earlier moments, discussions, and projects (such as the Non-Aligned Movement), the rise of China, the resurgence of Russia, and the emergence of Brazil and India, and to a lesser extent Turkey, Indonesia, and other countries-many of which may be considered middle powers (Gilley and O'Neil forthcoming)-have led to much greater visibility for South-South relations (Alexandroff and Cooper 2010).South-South relations have often been framed by academics and policymakers in traditional realist terms which assume a zero-sum world and the centrality of the US, the actor with the greatest material capabilities. These premises suggest that better relations between China and Brazil (or India, Egypt, or Angola) mean less US influence in that country, region, and the world. Not only must the rise of China (or Brazil and others) signal a decline in US power but so do the deepening itself of South-South relations.1 The present essay suggests that this interpretation neither explains South-South relations nor the intentions of foreign policy actors in the global South. Focusing on the foreign policy formulation of China and Brazil-two important "new" actors in global governance and in African

China in Africa: Exploring the Dividends and the Challenges

“…Domestically, China, for instance, has grown economically due to some series of reforms it embarked on previously, thereby making expansion beyond its shore inevitable. Also, since China's economy became stable internally, it decided to join the WTO in 2001 and later adopted the "Going Global'' Strategy which saw its firms investing in countries of the world, including Africa, to enhance her "global power status" (Marqures and Spanakos, 2014). Moreover, it's been argued that China encountered several hiccups in getting to its economic el dorado.…”

Lula’s Brazil in Africa: cultural diplomacy as an instrument of soft power

“…Although Brazil has a long and complex history of ties to Africa dating back to the colonial era, the country gave greater attention to its African partners, as part of a broader strategy to expand relations with the global South, when the Workers' 1 Party-led government of Luiz Inácio da Silva (2003Silva ( -2010 came to power (Abdenur and Marcondes 2016). Under President Lula, the political significance of South-South relations has been considered an integral aspect of Brazil's foreign policy agenda and an instrumental component to assume a more prominent role in global affairs (Marques and Spanakos 2014;Seabra 2014). Two foreign diplomats interviewed by Chatin (2018) recognized that President Lula asserted the "soft Brazil brand" of building the South-South relationship: South-South cooperation, which has been a political aim and an important component of Brazilian foreign policy under President Lula, was clearly used to increase Brazil's global influence.…”

The hybrid operationalization of Brazilian maritime security cooperation in the South Atlantic: an analysis of the West African case between solidarity rhetoric and pragmatic interests

“…This latter wishes to distance itself from the traditional North-South models of cooperation (BROWN, 2000;MUHR, 2016;SAKSENA, 1985) and attempts to challenge the systemic power distribution in the international configuration, towards a fairer and more secure world (SCHWELLER, 2011). Indeed, under the aegis of the SSC, Global South states have internationally presented themselves as an unitary actor (BROWN, 2000), aimed to move forward their traditional submitted position, reduce the negative consequences of an unequal development process by ensuring a sustainable socioeconomic growth and advocate a more "multipolar and democratic world" (MARQUES; SPANAKOS, 2014;LESSA, 2006).…”

“…Many scholars have engaged themselves in the study of concepts like solidarity among countries and horizontal relationships (GOSOVIC, 2016a;GILLS, 2016;MARQUES;SPANAKOS, 2014;MAWDSLEY, 2017;NEL;TAYLOR, 2013;QUADIR, 2013) allowing to the Global South and the themes related to it to jump among the top topics of IR researches and debates. On the other side, an argumentative literature about SSC has shyly been developed, criticizing the reforming role of emerging powers (BOND, 2016;GILLS, 2016), and emphasizing their double acting play, which means that while acting as challengers of the existing order and builders of an emerging architecture of politics, both regional and hemispheric, they are also adapting themselves to it and, in certain circumstances, working to preserve the status quo (COOPER; ANTKIEWICZ, 2008;NOLTE, 2010;SCHWELLER, 2011).…”