IIA Pacific Report
(April 2025 No.26) IIA Pacific Report
Author
admiia
Date
2025-04-21
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2173
The Institute of International Affairs has released the new Pacific Report No. 26.
In this issue, Director Taekyoon Kim of the Institute of International Affairs, Seoul National University contributed an article titled <Making Multilateralism Great Again? In Search of Middle-Ground Coalitions against the Trumpian Unilateralism>.
Director Kim explains that multilateralism, far from being relegated to history, can be reshaped by an emerging solidarity between middle powers, the Global South, and the liberal democracies among these nations in particular.
The growth of transactional practices in the aid industry risks fracturing the global architecture of development cooperation, destabilizing the liberal international order deadly, and causing the emergence of a new developmentalist international order embedded in neo-imperial power dynamics.
Perhaps the most striking example of this emerging democratic coalition between middle powers and Global South countries is India, which is explicitly recognized as a democratic polity within the Global South.
Since the 2023 BRICS Summit held in South Africa, they have pursued the so-called ‘BRICS+’ project to form a more inclusive and diverse league that can promote alternative development models and strengthen the voice of the Global South on key issues including trade, investment, climate change, and global governance.
The global process of bringing about an agreement on new development goals beyond 2030 inside the UN will serve as a litmus test for whether multilateral cooperation under alternative coalitions between middle powers and leading democracies of the Global South can succeed without the U.S. involvement.
Director Kim comments that the liberal democracies of middle powers, such as the Nordic states, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, should stand at the center of collective coalitions in reaffirming the important function of multilateralism in the Trump era.
In this issue, Director Taekyoon Kim of the Institute of International Affairs, Seoul National University contributed an article titled <Making Multilateralism Great Again? In Search of Middle-Ground Coalitions against the Trumpian Unilateralism>.
Director Kim explains that multilateralism, far from being relegated to history, can be reshaped by an emerging solidarity between middle powers, the Global South, and the liberal democracies among these nations in particular.
The growth of transactional practices in the aid industry risks fracturing the global architecture of development cooperation, destabilizing the liberal international order deadly, and causing the emergence of a new developmentalist international order embedded in neo-imperial power dynamics.
Perhaps the most striking example of this emerging democratic coalition between middle powers and Global South countries is India, which is explicitly recognized as a democratic polity within the Global South.
Since the 2023 BRICS Summit held in South Africa, they have pursued the so-called ‘BRICS+’ project to form a more inclusive and diverse league that can promote alternative development models and strengthen the voice of the Global South on key issues including trade, investment, climate change, and global governance.
The global process of bringing about an agreement on new development goals beyond 2030 inside the UN will serve as a litmus test for whether multilateral cooperation under alternative coalitions between middle powers and leading democracies of the Global South can succeed without the U.S. involvement.
Director Kim comments that the liberal democracies of middle powers, such as the Nordic states, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, should stand at the center of collective coalitions in reaffirming the important function of multilateralism in the Trump era.
