Global South Increasingly Skeptical of Western Security Guarantees, Report Finds

ST. PETERSBURG, June 1. /TASS/. The countries of the global South sometimes look to the West for military and political support, but it’s becoming increasingly clear to them that Western nations can not be counted on to guarantee their security, said a report from the Valdai International discussion Club prepared for the third youth conference.

One of the chapters of the scientific paper entitled "Beyond the Scheme: The World of Real Multipolarity," analyzes the challenges standing in the way of the growth of the countries of the global South.

"The persistent lack of security remains one of the key structural obstacles to the socio-economic development of the countries of the global South, where internal armed conflicts, terrorism and proxy wars, resulting from weak state institutions and highly porous borders, occur much more frequently than in the countries of the global North. Instead of forming a united front, the countries of the global South compete with each other, openly or covertly, including for the right to regional leadership. In this context, they sometimes continue to rely on the military and political support of the West, but they increasingly perceive Western states as being not the only guarantors of security," the report said.

It added that external support rarely contributes to sustainable peace, while several Western military interventions "actually caused waves of instability in the regions of the global South."

Other challenges to the development of the global South include drug trafficking, technological and digital gaps, and climate change.

No stable order

Describing the general situation in the world, Valdai experts conclude that uncertainty in politics and economics today "is the main driving force behind systemic changes."

"This uncertainty, reinforced by the return of competition between great powers and deglobalization, in turn affects the regional balance, creating instability at the global level," the report says. "This instability manifests itself clearly: in Europe, as a controlled decline of US hegemony and a dangerous leadership vacuum; in Central Asia, as a promising but untested laboratory for creating a counter-hegemonic multipolar order based on connectivity and common economic incentives; in the Arctic, as a dramatic regression from consensual governance to fragmentation and militarization, as exemplified by the threat of the annexation of Greenland and the paralysis of the Arctic Council."

The final hypothesis of the report is that the future is unlikely to be a single, stable order, "but rather a manageable fragmentation where stable sub-regional blocs coexist with zones of open competition. Therefore, the main task is to ensure stability and stable coexistence in this new, fragmented reality."

About the report

The report was a collective effort by the authors of the Valdai - a New Generation project, who were divided into five groups, each of which worked on a chapter of the report. The scientific editor was Timofei Bordachev, Program Director of the Valdai International Discussion Club. The report was prepared by young experts from Russia, Brazil, India, Italy, China, Colombia, South Korea, Tajikistan and Turkey.

The third Valdai Youth Conference is being held in St. Petersburg on May 31 - June 1. On Sunday, it was held in a closed format, while an open session is expected on Monday.