The lecture introduces the state system as an analytical category and argues that the current system is bipolar, with the US and China tussling for hegemony. While China is attempting to enrol large parts of the global south on its side, such attempts may be thwarted by, inter alia, regionalism and India. India, through its foreign policy, is attempting to establish itself as a third pole in the system.
We may have a harbinger of a multipolar system here. We may also have a set of factors that could put an end to the idea of a unitary global south once and for all.
Iver B. Neumann is the Director of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute and a Professor II at the University of Agder (UiA). A political scientist and social anthropologist, Neumann is one of Norway’s most renowned experts on foreign policy, Russian politics, and diplomatic history.