Paper short abstract:

The paper provides an historical analysis of changing conceptions and practices of global South-South development cooperation since the second world war.

Paper long abstract:

The paper focuses on the efforts undertaken by developing countries to decolonise their economies in the post-WW II era through South-South cooperation. After political independence was achieved, pursuit of independent economic policies have proved a much more difficult and problematic task, first within the 'Cold War' bipolar world order and subsequently within the context of globalisation. In the first decade of the 21st century, global South-South cooperation has resurged as an important driver of geopolitical realignments towards a mulit-polar world order. Differing definitions of the 'global South' and changing conceptualisations of 'South-South cooperation' over time will be linked to changing paradigms in development theoretical thinking, historical milestones of South-South cooperation (1955 Bandung Conference; 1964 formation of the G-77; 1974 New International Economic Order; 1978 Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries; 1986 Right to Development; the current UN frameworks to promote South-South cooperation), and 'new' and 'old' actors involved, such as the so-called BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as well as G-20 countries such as Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, South Korea and Venezuela. The promises of South-South cooperation as a horizontal relationship will be contextualised with 'traditional' OECD-DAC cooperation (e.g. as a form of resistance to asymmetrical North-South relations and the current global governance regime and its institutions), and different cooperation dimensions will be explored.