Africa: Clues About the Tendencies of the Global South

The “global political economy” and “development” are in flux in the second half of the second decade of the twenty-first century, challenging both analysis and policy. Yet, Africa has continued to grow along with Asia, indicative of burgeoning South-South ties, or a South-East axis. What is “emerging” is debatable: companies? economies? middle classes? powers? states? technologies? even universities? However, NTS threats are also proliferating, now including the “water-energy-food” “nexus”. Regional and transnational perspectives need to be continually refined to ensure that “global IR” is informed by the heterogeneous Global South.

An earlier & shorter version of this paper appeared as the Preface to the revised paperback edition of Cornelissen et al. (2015) published in the Palgrave Macmillan IPE Series in Spring 2015, ix–xxi.

The South has risen at an unprecedented speed and scale … By 2050,Brazil, China, and India combined, are projected to account for 40% of world output in purchasing power parity terms …