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- Convenors:
-
Rory Horner
(University of Manchester)
Lidia Cabral (Institute of Development Studies)
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- Formats:
- Papers Roundtables
- Stream:
- Rethinking development
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 29 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
These paper sessions and open roundtable focus on South-South relations, including but not limited to trade, policy cooperation, migration, finance, and technology transfer. How have South-South relations been impacted by, and shaped responses to, the multiple pressures unsettling development?
Long Abstract:
South-South relations are a major axis of contemporary development processes and outcomes. The prominence of such relations has surged across a number of domains, including food and agriculture, migration, trade, technology transfer, policy cooperation. Many hope that South-South relations can unsettle in positive ways the status quo, while others worry that the more negative aspects of South-North relations may be reproduced. Covid-19 has augmented the relevance of considering South-South relations as a key aspect of development. Flows of finance, food and people have been significantly impacted, while South-South supplies of medical goods are a key aspect of the immediate response. Longer-term, Covid-19 accentuates the need to consider the role of South-South relations in contributing to ‘building back better’ towards global sustainable development.
This panel welcomes abstract submissions for papers on any or multiple domains of South-South relations. Papers could engage with, but are not limited to, the following questions:
• How have South-South relations been impacted by, and shaped responses to, the multiple pressures unsettling development, including multipolarity, Covid-19, climate change, populism and racial violence?
• What is the potential for South-South relations to contribute to ‘build back better’?
Format: Paper sessions will primarily be synchronous, but would also be open to some asynchronous contributions e.g. where the presentation is played as a video, but the presenter participates in live Q&A. We will also convene an open format and synchronous roundtable discussion on this theme, which anyone registered for the conference can participate in without any prior submission or notification necessary.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 29 June, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This paper aims to examine the emergence of BRICS from their 'arranged marriage' (Anand et al, 2021) to today's challenges of a post-pandemic context and the opportunities and challenges to their potential contribution to 'build back better'.
Paper long abstract:
Twenty years on since being identified as BRICs by O'Neil (2001), the 'arranged marriage' (Anand et al, 2021) of the five nations has withstood some significant tests of time including the sanctions against Russia, the corruption scandals in Brazil and South Africa and heightened state of alert due to border disputes between China and India in the Himalayan border regions. The Covid-19 pandemic has presented significant challenges for these nations but also opportunities for vaccine diplomacy. The aim of this paper is to contextualise the relationships of BRICS and explore and conjecture potential pathways in the next phase of their relationship with one another and more importantly between individual BRICS members and the countries of the Global South. We have a number of questions to consider. Can we conjecture a transformation of the BRICS to become BRICS2.0 or would it be business as usual? Would BRICS make or break further co-operation to deliver the Paris 2015 Climate deal? Beyond vaccine diplomacy of the short term, what should BRICS do differently to have a significant impact on 'building back better'? Given the G7 and Biden presidency's focus on democracies, are BRICS likely to undergo a split as IBSA (democracies) and R-C (the non-democracies) or would the (presently) 'all male' (metaphorically chest thumping) 'strong men club' likely to recruit other similar members such as Turkey into the group? What are the implications of the next phase of BRICS for development co-operation and the future of South-South co-operation? Drawing upon the conceptual work of North et al (2009 and 2013) and Nye (2015), the paper identifies some potential responses to these questions and also issues for further consideration.
References:
Anand PB, Fennell S, Comim F (ed) (2021) Handbook of BRICS and Emerging economies, New York: OUP
North D et al (2009) Violence and social orders: a conceptual framework, CUP.
North et al (2013) In the shadow of violence: politics, economics and the problems of development, CUP.
Nye J (2015) Is the American century over?, Political Science Quarterly, 130/3:393-400.
O'Neill J (2001) Building better global economic BRICs, Global economics paper 66, New York: Goldman Sachs.
Paper short abstract:
The paper examines the characteristics of China’s medical aid in the first wave of COVID-19. We find that China’s COVID aid does not deviate from the country’s past aid practices and is mainly defensive in nature to pacify the critics of its failure to contain the virus at the beginning.
Paper long abstract:
Since late February 2020, China has provided medical assistance on an unprecedented scale across the globe. While some observers have worried about the geopolitical implications of China’s COVID-19 aid, referred to as ‘mask diplomacy,’ no research has empirically assessed the allocation, design, and policy logic of China’s aid in this pandemic. Combining a new dataset on the global distribution of Chinese in-kind medical aid with government and news reports, we examine the characteristics of China’s aid in the first wave of the global pandemic. Our findings show that China’s COVID-19 aid does not deviate from the country’s past practices on foreign aid and is mainly defensive in nature to pacify the critics of its failure to contain the virus at the beginning. While demonstrating the constraints China faces in transforming its aid practices in the COVID-19 context, we call for more cooperation between China and traditional donors to better design development cooperation in the post-COVID era.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines how South-South globalisation through both India, especially, and China have played key roles in increasing access to pharmaceuticals in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paper long abstract:
The Covid-19 pandemic and the search for appropriate treatments and vaccines has led to intense focus on the pharmaceutical industry for accessing medicines for treatment and vaccines to prevent infection. This paper explores how responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are linked to underlying economic geographies of pharmaceutical production. The pandemic has exposed pharmaceutical insecurities in the global North and has involved nationalist responses to scramble for drugs and especially vaccines. South-South linkages continue to play a key role in the pharmaceutical industry, including in increasing access to treatments and vaccines to many people in low and middle-income countries. The roles of both India and China, in particular, are demonstrated to be especially influential in the pandemic response, in ways which reinforce the significance of South-South dynamics within the pharmaceutical industry.
Paper short abstract:
Using input-output data for Africa, with a case study on EAC, this paper argues for increasing value-addition in SS trade as a key aspect of building back better from Covid-19. It further explores the role of South- South digital cooperation in achieving this.
Paper long abstract:
Covid-19 has exposed Africa’s reliance on GVCs for access to essential products in a major way, leading to a now increased focus on South-South trade and regional VCs for economic recovery. This paper focuses on value-added in SS trade as a key aspect for development. While EU accounts for 42% of Africa’s total exports, it represents 62.8% of Africa’s value-added exports (VAX), with China and India together accounting for just 5% of Africa’s VAX. Even within Africa, countries exporting outside their regional economic community (REC) are doing better in VAX. The paper use input output data from UNCTAD EORA and finds that EAC countries’ value addition is higher in extra-regional exports than intra-regional exports, particularly in services sectors of hotels and restaurants, transport services and post and telecommunications. The average domestic value-added share of post and telecommunications in extra-EAC trade is 48.5% but only 9.4% intra-EAC. The lower domestic value-addition in SS trade maybe linked to industrialization and harmonisation challenges and lower digitalisation. The paper scopes out the role of boosting domestic value addition by digital services across sectors for boosting SS trade in Africa, and further identifies priorities for South-South digital cooperation for a win-win situation and collaboration across the global South.