The Variations of Solidarity Institutions in the Global South: Bandung Conference to the South-South Cooperation

• In Event: Global and Transnational Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 11. Changing Orders of Power

Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of institutions of solidarity in the Global South, starting from the Bandung Conference in 1955 to the South-South development in 2025.
The paper explores how the Global South actors have switched to different solidarity institutions and have changed the norms of solidarity and collaboration from a period of bipolarity during the Cold War (US vs Soviet), unipolarity (domination of the US after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s), and multipolarity (the rise of emerging powers such as China).
This paper argues that the Global South actors have not only contributed to the formation of solidarity organizations but have been actively engaged in institutional reconstructions in response to the institutional erosions from the Global North. By institutional erosion, the paper refers to the Global North withdrawals from multilateral commitments and the weakening capacity of global security entities such as the UN Security Council in stopping conflicts. By institutional reconstructions, the paper means that the Global South actors have persistently tried to not only maintain the international institutions of order, but also to create platforms of collaboration in knowledge, policy, and development, given the uncertainty over power relations within the Global North.

Author

• Mehdi Hoseini, Boston College