Reconfiguration of the Global South: Africa, Latin America and the “Asian Century”

Since the 1980s there has been a steady shift from West to East in the international system, first economically, then increasingly also politically and culturally. Emerging markets in Asia have moved up the value chain of industrial production processes and the share of Western industrialized countries in global GDP has declined. Beside the G7 the G20 has emerged as an international platform to discuss challenges of economic cooperation, with mixed success. Asian nations like China and India also assert themselves in security matters and seek new avenues for investment flows and development cooperation. 

What will be the role of Africa and Latin America in the approaching “Asian Century” and associated reconfigurations of global value chains? Will they be able to assert themselves and find a voice of their own? Will they manage to develop industries of their own and diversify trade relations? Will they launch new ways of regional south-south cooperation like the three Africa-South-America (ASA) summits that have been held thus far and in which way might they differ from earlier attempts during the non-alignment movement of the 1960s and 1970s? What is the role of migrant communities and cultural exchange? Do Western and Asian approaches to the two continents differ (Washington vs. Beijing consensus)?