Determinants of Regional Leadership: IBSA in Perspective

The role of regional leadership in multi-polarity is the core focus of the third work package of the EU funded project known as Global Re-ordering: Evolution through European Networks (GR:EEN). Within this framework, the desire of Brazil, India and South Africa to solidify their position as regional leaders through IBSA Forum offers a potential for meaningful comparative analysis on different expressions of regional leadership. In order to effectively analyze this area of inquiry, a cluster concept consisting of three determinants – willingness, capacity and acceptance – is used. We find that an actor’s regional leadership increases the more the three determinants are affirmed: notwithstanding the limits in fulfilling all of the elements, the IBSA countries still show traits of leadership status in their regions. We go beyond the ambitions of a comparative overview to propose a systematic research programme which may serve as an engine for across-fertilization of our findings.