Global Divides: The North and the South

Global Divides: The North and the South

• The “Global South” refers to regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
• These areas are generally low-income and often politically or culturally marginalized.
• It's an alternative term for the "developing World," also known as "developing countries," "less developed countries," or "less developed regions."
• The term can include poorer southern regions of wealthy northern countries.
• The Global South signifies countries with interconnected histories of colonialism, neo-imperialism, and differential economic and social change, leading to inequalities in living standards, life expectancy, and resource access.
• Critics of neo-liberal globalization use the term to unite countries affected by violent economic policies from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.

Three Primary Concepts of Global South

• It describes economically disadvantaged nation-states and serves as a post-Cold War alternative to the term "Third World".
• The phrase "Third World" was used during the Cold War era to identify countries not aligned with NATO and capitalism or the Soviet Union and communism.
• The "First World" included countries aligned with NATO and capitalism, while the "Second World" referred to countries supporting communism and the Soviet Union.
• Third World countries are typically poor and underdeveloped, with low education levels, poor infrastructure, inadequate sanitation, and limited access to healthcare.
• The terms "Third World country" and "developing nation" have become increasingly interchangeable in recent decades.
• The Global South captures the deterritorialized geography of capitalism's externalities.
• It accounts for subjugated people within wealthier countries, meaning there are economic Souths in the geographic North and Norths in the geographic South.
• The Global South represents the resistant mindset of a transnational political entity.
• This identity results from a shared sense of subjugation under contemporary global capitalism.
• The Global South is not a directional designation but a symbolic one, capturing the collective identity of former colonial entities engaged in decolonization and aiming for a post-colonial international order.
• Globalization questions geographically bound ideas of poverty and inequality.
• Increased global flows spread both poverty and wealth.
• Underdeveloped areas in developed countries can resemble the poverty of the Global South, while affluent spaces mirror the wealth of the Global North.
• The state is the strongest vehicle for social redistribution.
• The state's redistributive function is crucial in economic globalization where neo-liberal economists and institutions seek to dismantle local state oversight.
• The development of the Global South should prioritize using a country's financial resources for internal development rather than relying on foreign investments and financial markets.

New Internationalism in the Global South

• The problems of the Global South are becoming increasingly globalized.
• Underdeveloped states in the Global South are impacted by IMF policies from the 1980s.
• Economic measures prescribed by the IMF as solutions are recommended for countries in the Global South.
• Other countries, like Greece, recognize similarities in their problems to those in the Global South, which inspires them to draw from poorer nations' solutions.
• The Global South has served as a model of resistance like Gandhi's non-violence, initially focused on colonial authority in India, but now a part of global protest culture.
• Critiques of international financial institutions from intellectuals and activists in the Global South are also influential.
• Concerns about the environment in the Global South are becoming a global issue.
• Radical notions of climate justice are being articulated in the Global South amidst the threat of climate change.
• It is necessary for people in the North to support those in the South as global problems increase.
• The term "global south" is not only relevant for countries traditionally associated with it, but also signifies that the south continues to be globalized.
• The Global South, while rooted in specific geographic concepts, represents new forms of progressive cosmopolitanism.