It has always been particularly difficult to define the Global South. The original composition of BRICS – one of its earliest manifestations – offered little help. After all, what do democracies like Brazil, India and South Africa have in common with authoritarian regimes – indeed, highly authoritarian regimes – such as China and Russia? What is shared between a former colonial empire and formerly colonized nations, between countries still bound to observe international law and those that pay it no heed, between powers concerned about the consequences of climate change and those guided solely by aggressive resource extraction, regardless of the impact?

This disparate composition largely explains the emptiness of the BRICS summit communiqués. The subject of the Middle East, since October 7 and the terrorist attack carried out by Hamas in Israel, is a good example, even though the Palestinian cause has historically been championed by countries belonging to what was once called the “Third World” – a term synonymous with decolonization and development.

The plundering of the South’s resources has long ceased to be the exclusive domain of the North, as is so depressingly evident on the African continent. The lowest common denominator among representatives of the Global South was thus reduced to criticizing rules written to serve Western interests, international institutions kept under Western control, and exclusive diplomatic, economic, and military alliances that had until now amplified the North’s increasingly relative influence on the world stage. The Global South’s only real common ground was this opposition.

You have 70.2% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.