Despite recent economic troubles, Chinese President Xi Jinping still has ambitions to present China as an alternative model of development for the rest of the world through its Global Development Initiative. Though the GDI’s focus is scaled down from the BRI’s emphasis on huge infrastructure projects, its conceptual aims are broader.
Several recent articles have questioned the validity of the concept of the “Global South” and even call for the retirement of the term altogether. But instead of dismissing the term, it’s important to clarify what the Global South is and is not, and to demonstrate the shortcomings of the most widely used arguments against the concept.
Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden met with his counterparts from the five states of Central Asia in the first-ever leaders’ summit of the so-called C5+1 format. The meeting is a step in the right direction when it comes to U.S. policy toward an increasingly strategic region, but one that Washington has historically neglected.
