ABSTRACT
In my view, there is little question that we – and I write this assuming that most of the readers of this book will be based in the countries of the Global North – need to know more about the Global South. This is partly for the simple reason it is not possible to consign the countries of the South, viewed for much of the latter half of the twentieth century as the residual ‘Third World’, to the role of economic and political also-rans. As was noted in the opening chapter, ‘emerging’ economies now (in 2006) account for more than half of world GDP, measured at purchasing power parity, and China and India are the world’s second and fourth largest economies (The Economist 2006b: 3-4). Emerging economies also contribute 43 per cent of world exports. In time, the Security Council of the United Nations may be reformed to more fully represent the countries and peoples of the world and the balance of global political power is shifting in line with the rebalancing of the global economy. The divisions of the world – rich/poor, North/South, Western/non-Western – which we became so comfortable with over the course of the twentieth century have broken down, even if there is a degree of inertia in the constitution of the world’s key institutions, and in people’s minds.
