LOMONOSOV MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF WORLD POLITICS
WORLD POLITICS FORUM
Global South
in the Сontext of the Great Power Rivalry Revival
December, 1, 2023
Location:
Lomonosovsky Prospekt, 27-4
(Shuvalov Building, LMSU)
World Politics Forum is an international conference that was first held in 2021 at the initative of L.E.Slutsky, Doctor in Economics, who is the current President of the School of World Politics and the chairman of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs. Taking place on a yearly basis at the School of World Politics the Forum is officially supported by the Russian Academy of Sciences, public authorities, state corporations as well as private entrepreneurs.
The School of World Politics considers the Forum being instrumental in helping to enhance the working process of the Interdisciplinary Scientific and Educational School of Lomonosov Moscow State University “Preservation of the World Cultural and Historical Heritage”.
Abstract
Academic search engines such as Google Scholar show a substantial boost in the usage of the term the Global South since the completion of the Cold War.The above-mentioned term was first employed in 1994 in the title of a peer- reviewed journal article “End of history, or its continuation and accentuation?” by Bahgat Korany, professor in International Relations at American University in Cairo. Another distinct U-turn from Eurocentrism was in 1995 when a nongovernmental organisation “Focus on the Global South” was founded in Bangkok. The co-founder was Walden Bello, a prominent Filipino alter-globalism ideologue and dependent development researcher. Later on, the scientific community witnessed a truly exponential growth in the frequency of the Global South terminology in English academic discourse: from 5 titles in 2000 to 362 titles in 2017. The dramatic surge in numbers allowed to practically supersede the obsolete concept of Third World countries in English academic publications. It is worth mentioning that similar processes were taking place in other languages.
Hence, nowadays it is feasible to declare that the term the Global South seems to be widely acknowledged among various schools of thought and thus its scope implies much more than just depicting the discrepancies between the North and the South. The concept of the Global South is a metaphorical representation of the existing inequality of different countries and this representation is comprehended as “a labile designation” having a purely contextual meaning that is way too far from being attributed to a constant empirical referent.
For the time being the established world order keeps relentlessly altering and we are facing the challenges driven by no longer declarative, but real entry to the forefront of world politics of new players who are seeking a way to make amends for the unjust distribution of privileges after the completion of the Cold War. The transformations give additional meaning to the discussions concerning the opportunities and prospects of the countries of the Global South. Recognizing the relevance and practical significance of the current state of affairs the topical issue Global South in the Сontext of the Great Power Rivalry Revival has been picked as the byword for the third Forum organized by the School of World Politics.
In the course of thematic sessions and round tables experts from all over the world are welcome to contribute to the discussion of the following theoretical and practical issues:
What did globalisation add to the socio-economic tapestry and the international status of the Global South?
How did the systemic crisis of 2020 affect diverse countries of the Global South in terms of public health, economy, politics and self-identification with a particular civilisation? What efforts were taken to keep its aftermath to a minimum?
What are the odds that the Global South and the Global North can be on the same wavelength in the matter of security? Is mutual comprehension still possible, given that the concept of "security of the individual" and the principle of "responsibility to protect" turned into a show of force arising under the pretext of protecting human rights and humanitarian considerations?
Will those who grow into major players of the Global South be focused only on forging their own identity and getting more competitive internationally or is it plausible that they might take heed of the interests of the less developed countries?
What are the institutional mechanisms and other ways that the Global South can use to get through to the international community in the era of information wars and world polarisation?
Can a common opposition to hegemonic projects in a post-colonial context become the basis for real unity among the countries of the Global South? Or does the current dynamics of international relations require a more nuanced approach, and is it more appropriate to talk about the existence of a hegemonic and counter-hegemonic Global South that is itself in tension?
The social impact of any academic research is subject to the possibility for advancing a theory whose stipulations do not hinge upon time and space restrictions of classical empiricism. Having taken this into consideration we need to comprehend how further development of the Global South concept simultaneously tackles the two pivotal questions: to wit, how can the global imbalance in international relations be explained and is it realistic not to digress from the originally European and consequently Eurocentric theory?
In order to join our discussion all participants willing to attend the conference as speakers are welcome to fill in the electronic conference registration form until October, 15, 2023.
The conference registration form comprises: the speaker’s full name, country, affiliation, position, academic degree and title, topic of presentation, abstract in Russian and English (up to 100 words), E-mail, mobile phone number.
The registration form as an attached file named the speaker’s surname and the word “conference” should be e-mailed to polit.forum@fmp.msu.ru.
The Organising Committee is fully authorised to turn down the applications that are not in compliance with the thematic and formal criteria of the conference.
Only face-to-face presentations are accepted.
Notification of the inclusion of a presentation in the conference program will be sent before November 1, 2023.
