“We Left Behind, and This Is the World.” I Wish to Continue This World”, lithograph by Chika Osaka, 2016. CHIKA OSAKA/GALLERY MOMO Professor of political science in the department of Japanese studies at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Inalco), of which she is co-director, Guibourg Delamotte is a researcher at the French Institute for Research on East Asia (attached to Inalco). She is also a teacher at Sciences Po Paris and a researcher at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo. His latest work, Japan. A Discreet Leader, was published by Eyrolles in 2023. You have just returned from a stay in Japan and Australia: what vision do these two countries have of the Global South? The notion of the Global South is vague. Despite its name, it does not refer to a geographical region, but to countries whose socio-economic structures have inherited from colonialism. It therefore brings together a heterogeneous group of nations in precarious or emerging situations, integrated into the global economy. Their common point seems to be a memory of colonialism – which translates into a rejection of the West as a model and is combined with a desire not to be drawn into the clashes between the United States and its allies and China. or to Russia – although Beijing also claims to be part of the Global South. This supposed neutrality has actually worked in favor of Moscow, by weakening the effectiveness of the economic sanctions adopted against Russia. But we can also highlight what was presumptuous or hypocritical about the Western strategy: the West, which only accounts for 40% of GDP [produit intérieur brut] world, can he seriously claim to make Russia bend without rallying more support to his cause? The global South has China and India as its standard bearers. In September 2023, before the United Nations General Assembly, Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng declared that his country identified with the objectives and challenges of the least developed countries and that it offered them an alternative to the “hegemony of the West”. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Southeast Asia, winner of the political-economic rivalry between China and the United States Add to your selections Within the Western camp, Japan and Australia often have easier contact with the global South: they are not the object of the same apprehension on the part of these “new formula” non-aligned groups. Both certainly have a heavy colonial past in the region, but this is not the case elsewhere or on a lesser scale: India, Saudi Arabia or Brazil, for example, do not have any historical disputes. with Japan or with Australia. Southeast Asia could have some with Japan, as with Australia (in Papua New Guinea, for example), but China’s hegemonic ambitions – combined with internal political factors in these countries – counterbalance these considerations. You have 75.74% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
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