Two events with global repercussions took place in the past weeks. The first was the meeting of Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), an association that will consist of eleven countries from January. And the second, the meeting of the G77, a group that has now expanded to 134 members, to which China joins. A common feature of these two international meetings was the absence of the governments of the industrialized West and their allies.

The Global South is an ambiguous concept, not necessarily geographical; describes national societies that have experienced processes of colonization and marginalization in world markets and that share a series of historical vulnerabilities that stem from the way in which international power is constituted. It is an idea that offers political connotations and replaces the term “developing country”. Its genesis can be found in the concept of the Third World, produced in the Cold War, where the first of these worlds was the industrialized West; second, the countries of the vanished Soviet bloc; and the third, the periphery.

It is a fact that after the Cold War, the Global South gained greater political importance than during the East-West conflict. It is not only about a greater political presence, but also an economic one. The GDP of these countries is relatively growing, as is the demographics, and the industrial, regional and even military capabilities are significantly different today than at the end of the 20th century.

The Global South, however, is not homogeneous. It is neither a cohesive group nor a trade association. Currently, it is only a classification concept, but this does not mean that there are no attempts to represent and build it as a political bloc (Brics, G77). And not only that: world powers, and the most proactive among them is China, understand that this is an unavoidable terrain for defining the distribution of power in the modern international order.

China has a strategic project, the new Silk Road, which includes a global investment policy to improve infrastructure and connect these countries with their territory and market. Politically, the idea that China is part of the Global South is being questioned, as it is the second economic and third military power in the world. In any case, all the world meeting places of peripheral countries are supported by Beijing. The construction of the identity of this South involves its deliberate distinction from the Global North, which is how the industrialized West and its allies are understood.

The war in Ukraine meant the return of geopolitics. The heterogeneous and amorphous global south will have different positions. In the case of Latin America, it is likely that, regardless of the ideology of its rulers, many countries will choose the option of not aligning with a particular bloc or power in order to improve their options and negotiating capacity, but there will be temptations and more than offers — as Don would say. Vito Corleone — who is hard to refuse. (OR)